Rated PG-13 Grade: B
"Big Fish" is exactly the tall tale you’d expect from Tim Burton given the title. But unlike Burton’s previous films, "Fish" is bright, colorful, and airy - precisely the type of reach which has movie audiences sighing. For Burton’s fanciful sensibilities are rich, no doubt, and deprived of their satirical, dark tendencies they are hugely joyful to experience.
Albert Finney steals the film as the teller of fantastic tales - an elderly gentleman whose life has been spent reinventing himself into adventures and events wonderful for a young boy. But when that boy - his son (Billy Crudup) grows up, he finds his father’s stories too incredible to believe, and attempts to discover the man behind the myths. Told in flashbacks with Ewan McGregor playing Finney as an infectious, adventurous youth and Jessica Lange playing Finney’s adoring wife, "Big Fish" has expansive reach for a family film.
The acting here is highly accomplished, expressive yet with emotional suppression in play - just like a non-fiction family. Finney is superb; we learned to love him in "Erin Brockovich," yet this role casts his turn as a David lawyer set against a Goliath corporation in shadow. Here he is Goliath himself, his very presence on the screen sufficiently charming and weighty that he is able to convince his audience to suspend disbelief far beyond the norm. Burton along with Daniel Wallace (source writer) and John August (screenwriter) assist by keeping us at arm’s length from the truth with visual tricks and magical settings; even as you leave the theatre, you’ll be wondering which tales were true and which were false.
In this, Burton’s film is exceptional. He brings to the screen not a film so much as a dissertation on fear, love and truth. His characters must conquer the first to find the second; then they must accept the second to find the third. No path is easy, and even when paradise is gained a new enemy - time itself - sets in to betray the human spirit. In Burton/Wallace/August’s treatment, fanciful stories (nodding deeply to Greek mythology) frustrate because their truth cannot be verified; yet in the course of a life, what better methodology for teaching the values of these three primary elements - fear, truth and love - than a story? And to counterpoint his thesis, at the close of the film Burton implies a parallel to his own career spinning fantastic tales on the movie screens of the world.
It’s a mature, august work, and a welcome change particularly since Burton’s last effort, "Planet of the Apes," was such a sorry film. Yet his transformation is not complete; Burton admirably pulls off the translation of his unique visionary approach to a lighter pitch, but he fails to ground the story in truly meaningful waters. Compare this film to "Edward Scissorhands" or even "Batman" and you’ll find more powerful thematic ideologies running through those earlier films - the tortured existence of the outsider, the destructive returns on revenge. It’s almost as if the creators behind this film were so adamant on insisting that stories were worth telling that they failed to tell a truly compelling story themselves.
You can feel that in the pacing of the film - the first twenty minutes are deadly, lazily plotted and lacking in suspense. And some of the characters - most notably that of Jessica Lange - fail to coalesce into truly meaningful additions to the central theme. The star quality is intense... the cache of Burton clearly enough to overcome a script that is more quirk than quality for the casting agents to perform their own fantastic work. “Big Fish” will carry you through wonderful currents, but it won’t hook you.
Additional Movie Reviews
Related Column: David's Dish
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Albert Finney steals the film as the teller of fantastic tales - an elderly gentleman whose life has been spent reinventing himself into adventures and events wonderful for a young boy. But when that boy - his son (Billy Crudup) grows up, he finds his father’s stories too incredible to believe, and attempts to discover the man behind the myths. Told in flashbacks with Ewan McGregor playing Finney as an infectious, adventurous youth and Jessica Lange playing Finney’s adoring wife, "Big Fish" has expansive reach for a family film.
The acting here is highly accomplished, expressive yet with emotional suppression in play - just like a non-fiction family. Finney is superb; we learned to love him in "Erin Brockovich," yet this role casts his turn as a David lawyer set against a Goliath corporation in shadow. Here he is Goliath himself, his very presence on the screen sufficiently charming and weighty that he is able to convince his audience to suspend disbelief far beyond the norm. Burton along with Daniel Wallace (source writer) and John August (screenwriter) assist by keeping us at arm’s length from the truth with visual tricks and magical settings; even as you leave the theatre, you’ll be wondering which tales were true and which were false.
In this, Burton’s film is exceptional. He brings to the screen not a film so much as a dissertation on fear, love and truth. His characters must conquer the first to find the second; then they must accept the second to find the third. No path is easy, and even when paradise is gained a new enemy - time itself - sets in to betray the human spirit. In Burton/Wallace/August’s treatment, fanciful stories (nodding deeply to Greek mythology) frustrate because their truth cannot be verified; yet in the course of a life, what better methodology for teaching the values of these three primary elements - fear, truth and love - than a story? And to counterpoint his thesis, at the close of the film Burton implies a parallel to his own career spinning fantastic tales on the movie screens of the world.
It’s a mature, august work, and a welcome change particularly since Burton’s last effort, "Planet of the Apes," was such a sorry film. Yet his transformation is not complete; Burton admirably pulls off the translation of his unique visionary approach to a lighter pitch, but he fails to ground the story in truly meaningful waters. Compare this film to "Edward Scissorhands" or even "Batman" and you’ll find more powerful thematic ideologies running through those earlier films - the tortured existence of the outsider, the destructive returns on revenge. It’s almost as if the creators behind this film were so adamant on insisting that stories were worth telling that they failed to tell a truly compelling story themselves.
You can feel that in the pacing of the film - the first twenty minutes are deadly, lazily plotted and lacking in suspense. And some of the characters - most notably that of Jessica Lange - fail to coalesce into truly meaningful additions to the central theme. The star quality is intense... the cache of Burton clearly enough to overcome a script that is more quirk than quality for the casting agents to perform their own fantastic work. “Big Fish” will carry you through wonderful currents, but it won’t hook you.
Additional Movie Reviews
Related Column: David's Dish
Related Article: Daily Celebrity News
