Big Fish (2003)

                              BIG FISH
                (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: Tim Burton directs this study of a troubled father-son relationship. The dying father's fairy tale stories of the significant events of his life have always been a major barrier between himself and his son. The story has long fantasy sequences that pull the viewer into the stories studded with giants, werewolves, circuses, huge fish, Siamese twins, and more. The subject is really the upside and the downside of a strong imagination. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10

Will Bloom (Billy Crudup) has not spoken to his father Edward (Albert Finney) for three years. Everybody loves Edward for the outlandish stories he tells at the drop of a hat. But Will never really got to know his father because of those same stories. Dad will never get serious and talk about his life. Instead, he makes up these absurd tall tales and uses them as a barrier to keep other people at a distance. Edward would rather live in his fantasy world than to get serious. Now Edward has had a stroke and is probably dying. Will leaves his job as a reporter in Paris and returns to his Alabama home to be with his father and perhaps to get some final understanding between the two of them. The last thing that he wants is to hear more of his father's whoppers, but that is really what his father wants to give him. And the stories start coming. Dad tells about how he tamed a giant and how he visited a strange magical hidden little town called Spectre.

Tim Burton is no stranger to themes of our real world sitting beside and blending into a magical one. In EDWARD SCISSORHANDS he has a magical castle overlooking suburbia. BATMAN RETURNS and BEETLEJUICE both have juxtapositions of a fantasy world with ours. Where the script of BIG FISH perhaps falls down is that the stories are imaginative but not really enthralling. The young version of Ed Bloom (Ewan McGregor, who almost looks like he could be a young Albert Finney) spends time in the magical town of Spectre, but what he does there simply does not make for a good story. Further, the story of the wild storyteller and the skeptic is not dissimilar from the plot of the recent SECONDHAND LIONS. The timing of these two films coming out so close to each other is an unfortunate coincidence. (And the title could conceivably cause some confusion with FINDING NEMO, another timing problem.)

Cinematographer Philippe Rousselot, who filmed HOPE AND GLORY and DANGEROUS LIAISONS, did the visual work which is perhaps a bit too unsubtle with scenes in the real world having a cold, washed-out look and fantasy scenes having richer color. But somehow the fantasy images have a decided Americana feel to them. In the scenes where this American fantasy works it is effective and has a different flavor from the fantasy that Burton has put on the screen in the past. His character becomes a sort of Southern Baron Munchausen. Tim Burton has assembled a notable cast even for lessor roles including Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, Robert Guillaume, Steve Buscemi, and Danny DeVito.

This is a brand of fantasy that will not appeal to everybody, particularly sitting as it does cheek-by-jowl with a more serious story. This film does not argue for the need for fantasy as some films do, but for tolerance for those who need fantasy to survive. As such it is Tim Burton's answer to HARVEY. I rate it a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 8/10.

                                        Mark R. Leeper
                                        mleeper@optonline.net
                                        Copyright 2004 Mark R. Leeper

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X-RAMR-ID: 36931
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1246360
X-RT-TitleID: 1127787
X-RT-AuthorID: 1309
X-RT-RatingText: 8/10