Truth in Fiction

Rating: Null/10 (18 January 2004)

A culmination of sorts for director Tim Burton's career-long obsession with refashioning the fairy tale for modern, movie-going audiences, Big Fish is a delight. And like the quintessential tall tale of the big fish that got away, the real life of main character Edward Bloom is ultimately less important than the stories he tells.
Part fact, part fiction - perhaps not always truthful, but ultimately full of truth - Bloom's stories loosely tie Big Fish together. The basics - growing up, getting married, having a baby - are made magical and arguably, more meaningful here as Bloom (Albert Finney at his most likable) tells them. But his son, Will (Billy Crudup) feels distanced, cheated even, by his ailing Father's unwillingness to give the family the facts, and not the fantasy, of his life. And where there's fantasy, there's Burton at his best: a witch, a giant, a werewolf and even a Siamese chanteuse. All are misunderstood creatures who want nothing more than a sympathetic ear, and a life that matters. In this respect, the odd assortment of characters that populate Big Fish are no different, yet perhaps more fully formed, than Burton's Edward Scissorhands or even Ed Wood.
But the real magic of Big Fish is, oddly enough, the goofy enthusiasm of Ewan McGregor as the young Edward Bloom. Embarking on each successive adventure with pie-eyed optimism and a sense of wonder beyond all sense and reason, McGregor adds much needed humor and a jolt of vigor to a picture that could have easily tipped the scales too heavily in the direction of absurdity or treacle. In that same vein, watch for Steve Buscemi as poet/thief/tycoon Norther Winslow - hilarious, and a nice balance to a film that is otherwise Burton's heaviest and most profound.

If Big Fish can be faulted (and it can), it is for the heavy-handedness of many of its themes. Still, Burton's tale of fathers and sons and the stories each tell to make sense of their lives is an ambitious work. It's Burton's best, and quite an achievement.