Film Overview and Review

Rating: Null/10 (4 May 2004)

The title and posters may give the impression of Dr. Suess, but this film is Tim Burton at his best. It harks back to his classics, combining the 50s-ness of Edward Scissorhands and eerie forests of Sleepy Hollow, to provide an enchanting blend of fantasy and realism. Burton has found his ideal protagonist in Edward Bloom - a man so tangled up in tales of fact and fantastic that his son William feels he's never known his father. The film is both a celebration of Ed's life and the story of his sons discovery that his dying father is not the liar he always thought him to be. Whether young (Mcgregor) or old (Finney), Ed is loveable and inspirational, partly due to his yarn weaving, but mostly because of his carpe diem, rose-tinted spectacle attitude to life. His entertaining and whimsical adventures include encounters with a giant, a werewolf and a witch, not to mention the films namesake, a great Big Fish - to which there are many allusions during the course of the film. However, the balance of this delightful film hangs by a thread as Will, Billy Crudup, in 4-weddings-and-a-funeral-esk style, delivers a singularly terrible line in an emotionally charged bedside scene. But Burton manages to recover most of his dignity in the final phase of the movie, by reminding us of all the characters who have made us chuckle and entertained us so thoroughly throughout the movie. By doing so, the pieces of the puzzle that is Ed's life, fall into place. It is a beautifully crafted cinematic experience and one of Burton's finest. Sophie Tan