Burton's most intelligent film to date.

Rating: 10/10 (21 January 2004)

BIG FISH (SPOILERS!!!!)
As a Burton-fan, Big Fish initially is not what you'd expect. Tim Burton is known for directing films about lone and weird individuals placed in supernatural or Gothic stories. With Big Fish Burton leaves a few of his usual trademarks behind, but essentially returns to what he's good at, and delivers far from a disappointment. The narrative is basically a fantasy, based on one Ed Bloom, who has lived a life, only known to others by the miraculous stories he tells. Burton successfully tells Ed's tale by smoothly interchanging present day and the fantastic stories, using visual motifs such as hands and shadows. Two significant examples deal directly with Will Bloom. On the Airplane, Will sees a young boy casting hand shadows onto the trey table, which transitions to the hand shadows cast on the bedroom wall. The other time Will Bloom remembers the story by looking upon Ed's robotic hand. Burton further emphasizes his use of hands during the touching encounter of Ed and his water girl. He sits in his car, underwater, and touches the inside of the window, while the water girl smoothly caresses the outside, lining their hands up exactly. Several times throughout the film, direct cuts to extreme close-ups of hands appear, signifying the intimacy of the story. The editing in the film is strongly based visual links, which is necessary, since the story switches time's fairly frequently, and does not utilize blurring, simple wipes or dissolves to signify a change of time. However, all the time switching and location changes do not rush movie forward or slow the story down. The pace is smooth throughout the entire film, and never feels rushed or too slow. Big Fish has the top quality editing of Burton-veteran Chris Lebenzon, who has worked on every Tim Burton film since Batman Returns, but has worked several times with another Burton-veteran-editor Billy Weber. Aside from Burton, he frequently worked for Jerry Bruckheimer's team on movies like Top Gun, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, and Pearl Harbor. His most creative work so far was made for Tim Burton, and Big Fish is definitely his best.
Tim Burton's directing style, based on his past movies, is known for its portrayal of freaks and the way they live in our world. Burton tends to depict his freaks as either 'normal' people that cant fit into society due to their freakish personality, or as likable physical freaks that try to live their life as good as they can. Big Fish definitely has both, but leans more towards the latter. A major part of the narrative takes place in a Circus, which takes pride in showing freaks on stage, but none are ever frightening or seem of negative appeal. A big Burtonesque feature in any of his movies is his merging of humans and animals. Batman has several hybrid characters like Catwoman and the Penguin; Mars Attacks features a dog's body merged with a woman's head; and Planet of the Apes had the obvious merger of man and monkey. Though Big Fish's hybrids are more literal and implied rather than physical, he still has a woman swimming underwater like a fish.
Ed Bloom's connection to fish was apparent from the first sequence, until his death. Bloom's initial link of course was the gigantic fish he caught in the beginning. but he also swims like a fish in his pool, compares himself to a gold fish during his instant growth, and is told by Danny DeVito's character Amos Calloway, that he may have been a Big Fish back in hick-town. Ed even says himself, while laying in his bed, drinking a cup of water, that he was thirsty all his life, hinting at his fish-like nature. Furthermore, Ed lays in a filled up bathtub due to his fear of drying out. However the fish motif does not only apply to Ed Bloom, but also hints at his wife Sandra, who turns out was Bloom's mysterious water girl. Young Jenny tells Bloom that some see the water girl as a big fish, and he himself states at his son's reception, that sometimes the only way to get a perfect catch, is by offering it a wedding ring. But the most subtle hint, and yet most important, was towards Bloom's son Will, who in a way is represented by the fish Ed catches in the beginning, since Ed caught it on Will's birthday. However, Ed's words were `There are some fish that can't be caught,' which subtly foreshadowed Ed and Will's troubling relationship, as Will was unable to accept his father's fictitious life and had a hard time understanding why Ed was the way he was. The ending shot of Big Fish shows a fish jumping into the air, and being free and himself for the first time. Though it may seem that Ed is supposed to be the fish, it seems more plausible that it represents Will. For the first time in Will's life, he can accept who his father was and be happy about it. For the first time Will is free.
This is by far Burton's most intelligent movie. It tells the story of one person's inability to accept something that might not seem true. Burton however leaves the ending conclusion open enough for each audience member to make-up their own minds. The ending is very thoughtful and beautiful. Though opinions may vary, one of the main conclusions that can be drawn is `Accept and love everyone. especially the ones that are so different that you don't understand them.' Big Fish is truly a great film.
One of Tim Burton's best.