Heartwarming and enjoyable fairy tale

Rating: Null/10 (12 January 2004)

The name of the movie should have been Big Fish Stories, because it is about the fantastic and unbelievable stories of the life of Edward Bloom (Albert Finney). Edward has been a storyteller his whole life, and he has told and retold these colorful stories to his son, Will (Billy Crudup) with embellishments. The son doesn't know who his father really is, and he hasn't spoken to his father for years. His mother (Jessica Lange) calls him in Paris that his father is dying. Will, with his new wife, flies home to his father's deathbed to make things right. Edward does the one thing he loves, and tells his tall-tales about a big cat-fish, a giant, a witch, conjoined-twins, the circus, how he met his wife, and the birth of Will. Will doesn't know when his father was telling the truth or crossing into fantasy, and in the end, Will becomes the storyteller. The whole movie is Edward's stories, begun in truth and blended with fiction and fantasy, better, to Edward, than the ordinary lives we actually live. Albert Finney was great as a storyteller, and if you look at this movie as a fairy tale, then it was heartwarming and enjoyable. It wouldn't hurt if they cut 30 minutes. (Columbia Pictures, Run Time 2:05, Rated PG-13) (7/10)