"Most men, they'll tell you a story straight true. It won't be complicated, but it won't be interesting either."

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2004)

"Big Fish" is a hard nut to crack. The genre is a mixture of family drama, comedy and adventure/fairy tale. The story begins during the wedding of Will Bloom, the son of Edward Bloom. Edward Bloom lives to tell stories, wherever he goes, whoever he talks to, he tells a story from his life. Everyone who knows Edward well has heard all his stories at least twice, and when he during Will's wedding reception tells his perhaps greatest story for the millionth time, the story of how he caught the biggest fish in the river, Will has had enough. He says to his father, "Dad, you're like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny combined... you're just as charming, and just as fake. You tell lies, dad." Edward leaves the wedding, and the relationship between father and son is severely damaged. A few years pass, without Will and Edward speaking to each other. When Will learns that his father is very sick, he decides to go home to see him for the last time. His goal with this journey is to understand who his father really is.
The last paragraph summarizes the first fifteen minutes of the film. Then the viewer is taken along on a magical journey, as the dying Edward Bloom tells his story. We meet a lot of strange characters and fairy tale creatures, witches, giants, werewolves, and Siamese twins, we visit mysterious and dreamlike places and we get to see the fantastic life of Edward Bloom. As the story is told, Will tries to separate fact from fiction, even though this is very difficult. The story of "Big Fish" can resemble the great Norwegian play "Peer Gynt" written by Henrik Ibsen. They are both about a man who bends the truth; because stories told straight true can be very boring. The plot is perhaps simple, but very catching and very touching. Since we go through the complete life of a character it never gets tedious. The plot has romance, funny moments and few a crying moments. I shall not revile what happens to Edward Bloom, I can just guarantee it is worth watching.
The character Edward Bloom is one of the greatest movie characters I have ever seen. Even though he never tells the truth, I could not stop cheering him, mainly because he is a good and very charming person. To characterize Edward Bloom, I would like to quote him from the film: "There comes a point when any reasonable man will swallow his pride and admit he made a mistake. The truth is... I was never a reasonable man." The old Edward Bloom is brought to life by film hero Albert Finney (Murder on the Orient Express), while Ewan "Trainspotting" McGregor portrays him in the flashbacks. They are both great, even though Scotsman McGregor sometimes has trouble with Edward's thick Texas dialect. Finney on the other hand, being as experienced as he is, pulls off the dialect without a problem.
Billy Crudup (Almost Famous) stars as Will Bloom, Alison Lohman (Matchstick Men) and Jessica Lange (Tootsie) are the young and old Sandra Tempelton Bloom and Danny DeVito (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest), Helena Bonham Carter (Fight Club) and Steve Buscemi (Fargo) play different characters Edward meets on his journey. They are all very good, but Finney is without a doubt the most impressive of the lot. The scenes with Billy Crudup and Albert Finney are very touching, and young Crudup proves that he is a fine actor.
The actors are really great, but this is Tim Burton's film and masterpiece. The highly creative director of "Edward Scissorhands" has been given a script, which only his imagination could bring to life. Previously Burton has mostly made pure adventures, Big Fish has a little more depth, and he proves that he is marvelous director. One can say that the film has two separate stories, Edward's life and the story of the relationship between the dying father and his son. The story of Edward's life is told as flashbacks narrated by either Finney or McGregor, and with this part of the story, Burton shows that he is very imaginative. The camera work is beautiful, and the art director and his/her team have done a fantastic job bringing the fairy tale to the screen. The second story is the father-son-relationship, and even though this is Burton's first shot at the more sentimental scenes, he almost managed to make me cry, which is very unusual for me. A lot of people claim that "Edward Scissorshands" is beautifully romantic. That is correct, but compared to some scenes in "Big Fish", "Edward Scissorshands" is nothing more than a classic fairy tale.
I believe I know what Burton wants to say in the film; some people are story tellers. They don't wish to lie; they just tell what they imagined happened. No story is completely true; everyone has his/her unique view of the world. This we see very clear, once Will begins to understand who his father is, and what his father really experienced. On the other hand, "Big Fish" is also Burton's tribute to the classic fairy tales. Edward meets a witch, a giant, a werewolf, he walks through a wicked forest, and he spends parts of his life searching for the big fish in river. Even though Burton has modernized everything, the classic elements of storytelling are very important parts of the film, and it works.
"Big Fish" is now one of my favorite films. Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney have together with Tim Burton created one of cinemas' finest characters. Watch "Big Fish", listen to Edward Bloom's many stories, and get one of the best film experiences of your life. See "an adventure as big as life itself."