Big Film.

Rating: 9/10 (10 March 2016)

Big Fish (2003): Dir: Tim Burton / Cast: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Alison Lohman, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange: Magical film about tall tales on the brink of truth. It regards a son's desire to know who his father is but is always met with bizarre stories claimed as fact. Billy Crudup is now married and receives a message that his father is dying of cancer. He is familiar with the story regarding his father catching an unusually large catfish using his wedding ring as bait on the day his son was born. Plot is divided into a series of adventures told by Albert Finney that involve giants, deformed Japanese twins, a small hidden town, and the woman he reeled in with a field of daffodils and married. Another visual feast by Tim Burton whose resume includes such imaginative joys as Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow. Great performance by Finney as storyteller, and Ewan McGregor as his younger self envisioned within the adventure. Alison Lohan plays the woman he's destined to marry. Crudup is placed among viewers wondering what is true but the ending gives an interesting answer. Jessica Lange plays Finney's wife who must deal with the stories and delusions. In the tradition of bedtime stories, this film captures the imagination unlike any other Burton spectacle. Theme juggles fact and fiction and reality and fantasy within a film with a big heart and bigger ideas. Score: 9 / 10