Big Fish

I heard about this film for a long time before I finally got down to watching it. From my parents, I got the reaction, Its a very strange movie. From some of my friends they said it was one of the best movies they've ever seen. Others have said the movie is really not that great at all. But who cares about what they said, you're here to know what I think.

Big Fish is mainly focused on a young man named Will Bloom (played by Billy Crudup). Will's father, Edward (played by Albert Finney) is terminally ill with cancer and doesn't have long to live. Will and his wife (played by Marion Cotillard) travel to visit him and be with him near the end. Will and his father have had a bumpy relationship, mainly due to Edward's outlandish stories about his life. Will feels as though his father was never truthful with him and he never really knew his father, all he knew was his bedtime stories that couldn't be true.

Or could they?

The majority of the movie is Edward or someone who knew him, telling the story of Edward Bloom and his adventures growing up.

Young Edward (played by Ewan McGregor) is a confident, talented young man who feels like his ambition is too big for the small town he grew up in. Eventually he leaves with the company of a giant (played by the late Matthew McGrory) to find his destiny.

The great thing about this film is that for the entire film you are wondering what is true and what is fantasy. What actually happened to Edward Bloom, and what are things he's embellishing.

But that was something I was actually afraid of in this film. I was worried that none of it was true, that Edward Bloom's life was actually quite a dull one and this old man just wanted to entertain and make his life more interesting than it actually was.

Fortunately, that's not the case in this film, that would have been a pretty dark and depressing turn to the film.

Which is surprising for someone like Tim Burton.

I've never been a huge fan of Tim Burton. His films have never really gotten my attention or looked incredibly fantastic, probably because I don't shop at Hot Topic.

Furthermore, Burton has just not impressed me. Alice in Wonderland was a visual film sure but it was just a mess. Charlie and The Chocolate Factory was an even sadder mess. Sweeney Todd was just weird, and even his films prior to Big Fish really didn't impress me at all. They all just seem like this strange, emo, unusual style. Which don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that can't be done right and Burton has done some of that right. But when that's all your films Mr Burton, it gets really old.

Big Fish on the other hand, is the exact opposite.

There's nothing incredibly dark about this film, there's nothing overly strange in this film. Sure the visuals are great and I think that's a strength Tim Burton has for his films, the visuals.

And yeah, Big Fish has its unusual elements to it. There is a scene with a circus, or the scene with the twins attached at the hip. Is it weird? Sure. But in this film, its a little more subtle.

There's still a lot of Burtonisms to this film, but if you hadn't told me this film was directed by Tim Burton, I probably wouldn't have known.

And by god, Helena Bonham Carter actually acts in this film. She's not an obnoxious over the top character, she's actually very, very good!

As far as other performances go, its a fun cast. Ewan McGregor plays that animated protagonist that I'm sure I would want to punch if he wasn't developed as well as this movie develops him. The other fun part about this film is the actors they chose and how they work so well with their older counterpart. McGregor to Finney, Alison Lohman to Jessica Lange as Sandra, Edward's wife.

Danny Devito is in this film. Sure his southern accent was awful and I can't get Frank Reynolds out of my head, but he was a small enough and meaningful enough part for me to forgive all that.

And that brings me to the other part of the film, the "problems".

This is not a perfect movie. There are a couple parts that aren't exactly done that well or just could have been done better.

But what I've found by watching a lot of movies is that a movie can be very, very good and still have some problems with it. Its how good the other things are, and how well they can overshadow the bad things that really count and make the things that are bad insignificant.

The biggest problem I had with this film was the relationship between Edward and Sandra, in the past.

I liked Albert Finney and Jessica Lange and their performances together, I have no problem with the older versions of them and their relationship.

But the way these two meet is when Edward sees her at a circus. He sees her once and is determined that that is the woman he's going to marry. Sounds romantic right? Well it would have been if it had been developed a little bit better. Literally the only things he knows about this woman are things that Danny Devito tells him, which are things like, she likes flowers, she's going to college. Very superficial things.

Then when he finally finds her, all he does is do a couple romantic gestures and she loves him immediately.

Now I know this movie is all about embellishment and that's probably not how it happened, but the way it goes down doesn't exactly put either Edward or Sandra in a very great light.

Basically Sandra is engaged to Roy from the Office (played by David Denman). Now we saw Roy from the Office in Edward's home town and he would always be the one who kinda got the shaft in highschool. He was always in Edward's shadow.

You can tell he's not a fan of Edward but I felt bad for him. I didn't see him as an asshole... until he immediately beats the shit out of Edward for no reason.

This character was not developed nearly enough and the development that did happen kind of contradicted the sudden change to bruting bully on the drop of a hat.

But don't worry, he has a heart attack while jerking it... so its okay?

Again, this doesn't exactly paint either Edward or Sandra in a fantastic light. Sandra especially, I mean why'd you get engaged and then drop him the minute a total stranger gives you a bunch of flowers and gets beaten the shit out of him for you? It was just weird.

But again, the atmosphere and pacing of the story kind of makes you forget about the parts that were not really well explained and focuses more on the moral of the story rather than the semantics.

The other thing that bothered me about this film was the development between Will and his father.

Again, don't get me wrong, the problems with these two are very interesting and evolve in a very interesting way. You understand Will's issues with his father and you sympathize with him.

But then at the end, there's a stark change and suddenly Will understands everything and goes along with everything with barely anything happening.

The ending for me was just a little bit confusing and hey, maybe I just didn't get it. But I felt as though the change in Will happened way too quickly and I didn't feel like his character was developing and truly understanding his father until a very convenient turn of events. I don't know, it's not as big of a problem for me as the whole Edward courting Sandra thing, it was just an inconsistency thing and it offset me a little bit...

That is until this scene.

OH THE EMOTIONS!

But beyond the small things I picked out because I was watching this movie as critically as I could, the film was very very good. The visuals were spectacular and it really had a great message. 

This movie isn't so much a film about fairy tales or fantasy as much as it is about tall tales. Its this great evolution of a person's story being told over and over again and the heartfelt emotions and significance we put in those we love. 

My uncle who recommended this movie to me has a bumper sticker on his car that reads, "Don't let the truth get in the way of a great story". Now he's gotten criticized by random people who say that the bumper sticker encourages lying. But its not that at all. It points out that its not just the stories that are important, but the way that they are told and the people who tell it to us. I don't know, its just a message that hit close to home for me and I really really enjoyed this film. I think this was just a perfect match for Tim Burton and I really have to hand it to him. I just wish he would go back to something simple like this. Don't stay away from the weird stuff, just do it a little bit more subtly like this film. 

But those are my thoughts on the film Big Fish. What did you think? What do you think of Tim Burton's films? Are you a fan? Comment and Discuss below!

I'll leave you with this. Instead of a video, I want to leave you with an article I skimmed while writing this review. I may have borrowed somethings from the article but I think speaks well to the reason this is one of Tim Burton's greatest films. Enjoy! 

5 Reasons Big Fish was Tim Burton's Last Great Film