Truly terrible movie.

Rating: 3/10 (18 May 2005)

"Big Fish" has for reasons beyond me been hailed as a modern classic by many a viewer. The story is about an insane, self-centered chronic, liar (played by Albert Finney), who tells the story of his life to his neglected son (Billy Crudup). Of course the father lies about his life and comes up with a lot of stupid tales about himself as young (Ewan McGregor).
What I don't get about this movie is how people can like a person as reprehensible as Ed Bloom. Not only is he an arrogant S.O.B. who can't talk about anything but himself, he was also a bad father and probably also a bad husband, which is somewhat implied by Jessica Lange's restrained and depressing performance. Also, Ed Bloom seems to get sad every time someone tells him that he's not funny and tries to make him act sane for at least one time in his life. Wait scratch that, first he's sad and then he tells another story. I found it impossible not to hate him. Which is strange because everyone in the movie loves him, and I have no idea why. The only scene I really enjoyed was when he got beaten up.
Some things aren't awful though. The sets and Alison Lohman look great and... Well that was about it. Otherwise this is just two hours of pure horse-manure.
I could ramble on about all the pointless, sugarcoated, sentimental crap that this movie is stuffed with, but honestly I just want to erase it from my mind.