Tim Burton's Respectable Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (24 January 2004)

Tim Burton had originally garnered my respect as a storytelling director with Edward Scissorhands (the most comparable of his movies so far to this one), and re-established it with Ed Wood, and when I saw the trailer for Big Fish, I had a feeling this would become one of my favorite movies. This unique story of exaggerated features took some time at the beginning to discover where Burton was headed with it, but as the story progressed I became totally involved and stayed so until the stirring ending. The audience with me in the theater responded with claps of applause. The strong cast worked together seamlessly -- Ewan McGregor, never afraid to take on varying and unique roles (Trainspotting, Eye of the Beholder, Moulin Rouge!) excels as he often does (I could see him becoming a recurring favorite actor of Burton's along with Depp). Billy Crudup takes on his role with the emotional honesty he showed in Almost Famous. The chemistry between Albert Finney and Crudup convincingly relates a broken relationship between father and son. The story is tastefully outlandish, and a striking statement on the differences between fact and truth. 10 out of 10.
"You tell lies to get to the truth." - Tim O'Brien