Big Fish

Ealasaid/ January 11, 2004/ Movie Reviews and Features

Originally written for The Milpitas Post
Directed by: Tim Burton
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, Marion Cotillard
Rated: PG-13 for a fight scene, some images of nudity and a suggestive reference.
Parental Notes: This is a good film for almost any age, although young children may find parts of it too intense.


“Big Fish” is simultaneously an atypical Tim Burton film and a quintessentially Tim Burton film. As a director, Burton has specialized in dark, twisted fables – tall tales saturated with a gothic feel and a streak of odd sentimentality. His earlier films like “Batman,” “Sleepy Hollow,” and “Beetlejuice” are often brooding, moody, and gleefully stylized. From that point of view, “Big Fish” seems like an odd film to come from this director.

However, at its heart, “Big Fish” is a film about a man who loves to tell tall tales, a story about a father and son who are first divided then deeply connected by the power of fable. It’s charming, strange, and as magical as any film Burton has ever made. Its bright and warm trappings don’t change the fact that it takes place in a world fueled by creativity and is best viewed with the same sort of wide-eyed wonder and love of enchantment as Burton’s other films. This is just a slightly more friendly world.

To hear Edward Bloom (Albert Finney, with Ewan McGregor as the young Edward) tell it, he’s had a magical life. He’s charmed a catfish the size of a shark, saved his hometown from a hungry giant, worked three years in a circus without pay to learn the name of the woman he was destined to marry, and gotten help from a pair of conjoined Chinese twins while behind enemy lines on a secret mission. His rambling tall tales mesmerize and enchant his listeners, and it’s clear that he loves telling them at least as much as everyone loves hearing them.

Everyone, that is, except Will Bloom (Billy Crudup). He’s been listening to his father’s stories for his entire life. When he was little he loved them but now that he’s older he finds them both boring and frustrating. Boring because he’s heard them all enough times that he can recite them himself, and frustrating because he knows they’re all impossible and can’t help wanting to know what his father’s life was really like when he was young.

When Will’s mother (Jessica Lange) calls to tell him that the old man is dying, he comes home full of determination to take this last opportunity to get to know his father for real. As he begins investigating his father’s stories, the truth unravels in some surprising (and enlightening) ways.

The flashbacks give Burton a chance to shine, full as they are of the weird and wonderful. But the rest of the film has that magic, too; we can see the power of the old man’s tall tales and his confusion when Will insists that he tell him who he really is. For Edward, the stories are about who he really is, regardless of how much factual truth they contain, and Will’s journey toward understanding that is a powerful one.

Burton has been using his ability to create worlds and characters that ring true in spite of their weirdness has long served him well, and he uses that skill in “Big Fish” with aplomb. It’s odd to find normal people like Will and his wife in a Burton film, but they give us a way into the wonderful, odd world Edward and his wife inhabit.

The acting in “Big Fish” is seamless and effortless. Finney’s Edward is a charming old blowhard, and it’s easy to see how he aggravates his son and charms his wife at the same time. McGregor’s Edward is young and heroic and the kind of man it’s easy to admire and long for and look up to, even if he’s not entirely real. Lange gives her character a great deal of depth with very little screen time, and portrays the love she feels for Edward with the same deft touch she uses to show the character’s despair at inevitably losing the man she cares so deeply for. Crudup has the tricky job of being the party pooper in the group, but he handles it well and brings across the frustration and anxiety of his character.

“Big Fish” is a film for people who want to believe there is magic in the world and some truth to tall tales. It’s not a typically dark Burton film, so it will doubtless disappoint some of his fans and be skipped by those who usually don’t like his work. Both groups are missing out – “Big Fish” is a brilliant film and a top notch showcase for Burton’s talents. It’s sweet and strange and full of hope, and well worth seeing if you’re tired of mindless violence and depressing character studies.

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