Sir Reel and the Disney Disease

Rating: 6/10 (19 January 2004)

Well, this film certainly took a while to hook me in, and actually my wife, pre-occupied with real life instead of reel life left the theater after about 20 minutes.
I had convinced her to see this with me after a friend had told me he thought this was a great romance. Ewan MacGregor does reprise his role from "Moulin Rouge" as a hopeless though far from helpless romantic. There's an "aw-shucks" aspect to his portrayal, did we ever see him smile and a cartoon beam of light twinkle off his teeth? Even if not, his romance doesn't have much bite to it.
I think the acting (and casting, are Southerners really that foreign to us, and to Tim Burton?) was no big shakes. Crudup gets one scene (towards the end) to really show his craft, but if you haven't seen "Jesus' Son" you're better served by watching that. Jessica Lange is a goddess, but here she is not much more than a Hallmark card. For her may I recommend Titus...amongst many.
And did someone really write here that Danny DeVito was subtle? Now, that's funny...
The big story here are the big stories, and Burton's always crafty realization of them. The tall tales are fun in a circus fashion. Indeed we even do get to visit a circus, and Burton remains a fan of the freak show...there's no boy here with scissors for hands, but plenty of others...the "Siamese" twins above all were enchanting.
There's just not enough other oddball twists from Burton to make this a "great" film for me, a doctor who has some prescience (Guillame/Benson lives!!), the deposed colossus skipping town, and so forth.
I did like new twists on myth as presented here. It would be interesting to see what others think of the book that this is based on. Also, the notion that the best we have to offer in our lives are our stories is a beguiling one (especially for someone working in the ranks of the Hollywood dream machine I suspect). I take issue with that message in theory, and in the realization of it here...I think that this dream has been manufactured to be consumed by so many, and thus lost its most interesting flavors.
So we end up with a cafeteria prepared big fish, that really is not that difficult to stomach, and is filling enough. As I think about it Burton's characters in the past were not a strong point (defined more by quixotic behavior than on dialogue, and detailed character portrayal...Batman was not the only comic book escapee among them), but I still think this film comes up a little lacking for Burton fans.
Lower your expectations, and give this film time to see past the "Forrest Gump" nature of it for the trees surrounding Specter and other delights...
6/10