Big Fish

Review by Jason Gaston

 

As you know, I kind-of have this thing against Tim Burton. It’s not that I don’t enjoy his movies… No siree! I love them, as a matter of fact. Beetlejuice? Classic. Edward Scissorhands? Marvelous! Ed Wood? Awesome!

The reason I have this thing against him is because, in recent years, he’s started to get stale. Witness Mars Attacks, Sleepy Hollow or Planet of the Apes… three average movies, but lacking either flare or a decent story. Tim Burton seemed to dry up and become scared and conservative.

Let's face it, he should just break down and call his new movies, Pale People With Bad Hair.

I’m going to have to put my playful barbs against Tim Burton away for a while, because his newest movie, Big Fish, is an awesome achievement. It’s got the style we love Tim Burton for all while being aggressive in its design, and heartfelt with its story.

The story, in case you don’t know, involves Ed Bloom, a larger than life figure who tells the stories of his life to anyone who will listen. His stories are so fabulous and so unbelievable that, naturally, his son Will doesn’t believe them. Will and Ed become estranged and Will doesn’t return home until years later when his father is on his deathbed.

Of course, the stories continue. Will still doesn’t believe them and begins to fear that he doesn’t know his father at all and probably never will. Will sets out on a personal quest to get to the bottom of his father’s tall tales and, in doing so, he discovers that real life is sometimes wilder than fiction.

Big Fish is not only Tim Burton at the top of his game, but also Albert Finney who plays the senior version of Ed. Albert Finney is incredible in this movie… his performance in Big Fish is probably going to be the highlight of his entire career and he needs a lot of those stupid golden statues for it. Mark my words! He needs them!

The other members of the cast, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, and Ewan McGregor also turn in some great performances, but the true stars of this movie are the tall tales themselves. They’re unbelievable, all right, but also fun to watch and fun to look at. Each one told with a wink and a nod, all colorful and vibrant.

The thing about this movie that sets it apart from Tim Burton’s other films is that it’s set in a real world full of real people. No caricatures, no masks, no outward strangeness, it's people who have seen the sun and own a comb. Real people with real emotions and real problems. Even in the tall tales segments of the movie the characters, although more exaggerated, are grounded to reality somehow. It gives Big Fish an air of maturity and dignity that is refreshing and a nice change of pace from Burton’s other works.

The end result is a movie that will have you smiling through your tears. Joyful and wacky, sentimental and sad… Big Fish is one of the most magical and imaginative movies of 2003 and probably the best Tim Burton movie since Edward Scissorhands.