fairy tales forever...

Rating: Null/10 (26 January 2004)

When I was a kid, my dad used to tell me this story about how come his skin was always red. He said that one day when he was cooking in his restaurant, a lobster tried to escape and he chased it all over the kitchen and out to the river where it ran off... Just as it was about to jump in, it gave him a little nip as if to say faretheewell and thanks for letting me go. My dad would say that a little bit of the lobster got in him that day which is what turned his skin red...
I know now that it was just because of the heat and everything in the kitchens but at that time and at that age... that was the best reason in the world. I even remember having a fight at school defending him and his story.
That's probably why Big Fish hit me in my heart so much. I havn't seen my dad in over 5 years and the moment the credits started rolling I wanted to pick up a phone and go find him. Tim Burton has taken a story full of life and imagination and portrayed it in a way only he can do, with humour, affection, surreality and pathos. This film can easily appeal to all sorts of people but for anyone like me who has fallen out with their father or not talked to them for a while.... man, it's going to get you.