Another wierd and wonderful triumph for tim burton

Rating: Null/10 (7 April 2004)

Tim Burton certainly has a unique vision. The everyday, and potentially suburban meets with the distorted and the bizzarre to create a surreal, and powerful film. The reunion betwween a dying man and his estranged son, as the son seeks to understand the man his father was- feasible, and ordinary, if a little sad, serves as a basis to transport the viewer into a world of fantastic fairy tales. Witches, giants, and siamese twin lounge singers populate the incredible life of Edward Bloom, played with mastery by Albert Finney as the dying storyteller, and Ewan Mcgregor as the younger, adventuring version. What is most captivating to the viewer, however, is so much not the incredible fantasy of the image, which, it cannot be denied is striking in its grotesque beauty, but the humanity at the centre of the tale. For this is where Burton truely shines- love, and interaction with no element of cloying Hollywood sentimentality. A truly wonderful film.