'They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops. And that's true.'

Rating: 10/10 (3 April 2020)

A lovingly crafted tale focusing on the power of storytelling and, without a doubt, Burton's most underrated film to date. Based on the novel by Daniel Wallace and adapted for the screen by John August, Big Fish is the story of Edward Bloom (his younger self played by Ewan McGregor, older by Albert Finney) a man who has a bundle of life experience under the belt and is a natural born storyteller; spreading joy to all those around him. Everybody apart from his son Will (Billy Crudup) who has had years of pent up frustration, not knowing fact from fiction in his fathers life. In Edward's final days, Will finally discovers his dad's joyful influence on people and the full story. It's a wonderful, gentle and sweet story that's very rewatchable and emotional as well as funny! The cast are all extraordinary; McGregor and Finney play Ed fantastically and it's career best performances from both actors. Ed's wife Sandra is played beautifully by Jessica Lange and Alison Lohman; there's a real romance to the story of their marriage that is actually quite profound and is a lot of the reason I like rewatching this one. The most challenging role I think is the one Of Will by Crudup who does a really great job of portraying someone going through a massive internal struggle. Great memorable cameos from Danny DeVito, Helena Bonham Carter and Matthew McGrory and fantastic editing by Chris Lebenzon, perfectly balancing the past and present to seamlessly create a nice steady narrative flow. Thematically, it's an all encompassing piece looking at the wonderfully random nature of life. Life as told through Bloom is pretty entertaining and glass half full which is very endearing to those around him and us as the audience! Its full of romance and a fantastic account of relationships between parents and children, specifically in the difficulties there can be between fathers and sons. There's also a dance scene with Loudon Wainwright, Missi Pyle and Steve Buscemi that is hilariously done