Big Fish: Review By carl

Tim Burton's Big Fish is a film that I have been intending to see ever since it's excellent trailer was first released online. I'm unsure about the stories origins, heard that it is based on some book, but I have neither read the book that it's based on, nor do I know anything at all about it. Nevertheless what I saw in the trailer showed me a world of fantasy, a life story that was narrated to the audience by a man who enjoys to really tell his stories including all of the exaggerated reality involved. It's a world that one would expect Tim Burton to be able to direct with deceptive ease, simply because he is a director whose twisted imagination is nearly always brought alive on screen, with visually spectacular results.

To be honest the film does manage to somehow live up to my own high expectations, for the most part. It starts as it intends to go on, a surreal shot of a giant cat fish swimming through the river of Edward Blooms Alabama home town. The tranquility of this shot alone is a miner wonder to behold as Edward Bloom, the films lead character, sets up the mood for how he feels about his life, namely that he was always a big fish trapped in a small town himself. He goes on to describe how he was born, how he grew up and the events that were involved in his decision to leave the town. However these are once again described with an exaggerated view of reality, meaning that when Edward is born he literally does shoot out of his mother, when he describes growing up he literally does shoot up from boy to man in a matter of minutes, and when he meets a tall outcast who needs to leave the village, the man is literally a sheep munching giant with an uncontrollably shaggy beard. Now if the kind of surreal scenes that I just described appeal to you, then it is not entirely beyond the realms of possibility that you could enjoy Big Fish as every event in the young Bloom's life is described to the audience by the older Bloom using similarly surreal examples of exaggerated reality.

It's during this portion of the story that the film really shines. Burton's almost magical eye has enabled him to produce scenes of such amazing wonder that you are able to not only enjoy the film, but actually relate to the events of Bloom's life in the same way that any parent does when they describe their children as shooting up every few minutes, or any other instances where we exaggerate real events for the sake of really emphasizing the things we feel at these various times. One stand out moment was used in the trailer, a scene where Edward experiences love at first site and time is found to literally stand still. Burton takes this moment and, using little details such as the floating popcorn that Bloom has to push out of his way, he produces a breathtaking scene full of the stirring emotions that you would expect of any work of art. It's this level of detail that really holds the film together, taking any of the films locations, (from the dark and dank haunted forest through to the sugary sweet town at the end of it) and adding them together to produce a work of art that is much more than the sum of its parts.

However Big Fish is able to transcend what has been the case with some of Burton's past efforts such as Planet Of The Apes or Sleepy Hollow simply because Big Fish works as more than just a visual treat. In particular the film also carries with it a quirky sense of humour, which goes along way to preventing the whole fantasy aspect from getting very old very fast. I never found any point where the humour was predictable, no moments where it didn't at least raise a smile because it is a genuinely funny film. Moments of comedy, such as Bloom working at a fairground and getting whacked across the fair when he stands a little too close to one of the rides, are timed to perfection showing that the writers were well aware, not only of the type of things that are funny, but also the appropriate times that they should be used.

As far as backing up those areas the cast during these moments do well enough to ensure that this fantasy section of the film would have deserved a spot on my top 10 list. Ewan McGregor (The Phantom Menace) plays the young Edward Bloom and really displays an understanding for what the film is supposed to be. He's never even remotely subtle in his portrayal, instead uses the same exaggerated Alabama accent that he used during the more deceptive moments of last years Down With Love to produce a charismatic hero that perfectly fits in with the rest of the over the top scenery.

Then his supporting actors manage to do equally amazing things in their limited screen time. Matthew McGrory (House of 1000 Corpses ) is the first you meet, playing Edwards giant companion Karl, who's body shape perfectly fit the character who was not meant to be human. Acting wise the character had limited lines but his presence still remained, as he made the character decidedly uneasy on the eyes, though he's never scary. (Before anyone says anything, his name is spelt with a K!) Steve Buscemi (Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead) shows up later on as a Poet from the same town as Bloom, and he does as well as ever. I don't think I've seen Buscemi ever give a bad performance (Though there's 2 Spy Kids films that I refuse to watch) because he has such an exuberant screen presence that he manages to make anything watchable, and that unmatched sense of charisma is in full force here. Other actors that show up and raise the films profile include Danny DeVito (Death to Smoochy ) as a werewolf that hires Edward to work for free in his circus (more symbolism see) and twin sisters Ada Tai and Arlene Tai who play siamese twin dancers.

However reading through this review will reveal a lot of pros that seem to indicate my star rating at the top was a mistake. Unfortunately it wasn't, because as well made as this area of the film is it ultimately mimics the tall tales of Edward Bloom, it doesn't go anywhere. These tall tales are not the real plot, they are just a portion of the plot that takes up the majority of the screen time. The actual plot of the film takes place when Edward Bloom is an older man who is dieing, but his son wants to get to know him before he does. He wants his father to tell him the real life story, to separate the facts from the fantasy before it's too late.

Again this section is certainly well acted. This time though nothing really stands out because of the fact that they need to be real people, as opposed to the exuberant caricatures that the rest of the cast enjoyed. Albert Finney (Traffic) plays Edward in this section, with Jessica Lange (Tootsie) playing his wife, Billy Crudup (Princess Mononoke) playing his son and Marion Cotillard (Taxi) his daughter in law. For the most part these are the only important characters in this section and they portray their respective characters in a sensitive, honest way that makes them much more believable for the real world setting of the story.

It's just that Tim Burton's talents are not best suited to real world, emotionally fluffy stuff. This area of the film lacks the elaborate fantasies, the sweet natured humour and over the top visuals, and poor Burton has nothing to fall back on. He fails to draw you into the story, doesn't manage the necessary emotional connection and as a result the constant interruptions of the fantasy story become irritating. It's a section that ends up dragging, severely dragging, to the point that I almost felt like walking out even though I was well aware that the fantasy would be returning in no time at all. It does succeed at teaching the audience the same things that it taught the son, that an interesting story is far more interesting than a bland realistic story. Of course I, as well as most of you, were no doubt already aware of this, so it's not our fault that Will Bloom needed a lesson in common sense.

At the end of the day the fantasy aspect of the story was very nearly perfect, with the overuse of the "Big Fish" metaphor being the only minor problem. Unfortunately the constant interruptions with a side story better suited to other directors ends up dragging the film down. I still recommend it, but only just.