Even with the sentimentality this film works

Rating: 7/10 (12 January 2004)

This film is about a man dying but its not what I would call a sad picture, but one that celebrates life's adventures and unique characters. Albert Finney plays Ed Bloom who is bed ridden and only has days left but this still doesn't stop him from telling his infamous stories about his exploits as a younger man. Ed's wife Sandra (Jessica Lange) loves to hear them but their son Will (Billy Crudup) is sick of them and thinks that his father uses these stories to hide his real life. As Will stays with his family he starts to discover clues that tie in to some of the tales he has heard. The stories are about Ed (Ewan McGregor) leaving his small town of Ashton to do good for others and along the way he meets a giant and convinces him to go on to bigger things. Ed takes a detour and runs into a small town called Spectre which appears to be like heaven with all the residents being very friendly and pretty young barefoot ladies prancing about and they want him to stay but he says no. Then he takes the giant to a circus run by Amos Calloway (Danny DeVito) and while there he sees the love of his life Sandra (Alison Lohman). He works for Amos to find out more about her and eventually finds out what college she attends and goes to see her.
*****SPOILER ALERT*****
They both profess they're love for each other but its cut short when Ed receives his draft notice and while in the war he parachutes right into a Red Chinese stage show where he meets Siamese twins that share two legs.

Will had never gotten along very well with his father but the more he listens to him during his last few days the more he understands how important these stories are. Will also figures out that there is a lot of truth behind many of them and this seems to bring them closer as the end nears.
This film is directed by the incredibly imaginative Tim Burton who has made an impact by telling his own versions of wild stories and his special talent as a director is evident in the flashback scenes with McGregor. This may sound cliche but this is a very magical film filled with an abundant of rich and weird characters and this is the type of storytelling that Burton excels in. He has always brought his viewers to places that we have never seen before and unique characters that we have never met. Some parts of this film reminded me of "Edward Scissorhands" but it also reminded me of another film that Burton had nothing to do with, "The Princess Bride". The casting is interesting as McGregor looks very much like Finney during the early 60's although Lohman doesn't have much resemblance to Lange. This film does get a tad overly sentimental but this is not a sad film and it does a good job of showing how special Ed's life was. Its not exactly thought provoking stuff but I allowed myself to go with it and I enjoyed myself for the whole ride. Burton usually doesn't allow his scripts to get this soft but its a film full of indelible images and characters that are not easily forgotten.