Burton does Forrest Gump - with middling results

Rating: 4/10 (29 October 2016)

BIG FISH is Tim Burton's attempt to do a whimsical flight-of-fancy movie based around an old guy on his death bed telling tall tales to his son. It's as simplistic as that, and it feels a bit like one of the Pee Wee films although without the irritating main character. Basically the viewer gets a ride through Burton's imagination with all of the kookiness and weird characters we've come to expect from the director.
This feels a little like a Coen brothers movie in places although without the wit. It's not a very good film, purely because I didn't like the main characters. The smug Ewan McGregor has long been a bane in my life and he doesn't change my opinion of him here; plus that Southern accent sounds fake even to this British viewer. Albert Finney is little better in a role that pretty much any old actor could have played. The only one I liked was Billy Crudup, who I have never seen playing a nice, ordinary chap before.
The nature of the tall tales and adventures is rather ordinary and the various romantic sub-plots are entirely boring. Once again we get Helena Bonham Carter turning up underneath various prosthetic work and various cameos from the likes of Danny DeVito and good old Steve Buscemi. Some of the interludes are surprisingly racist in their depiction of Asian cultures and others seem to take pride in circus culture and the exploitation of animals that goes with it. Needless to say I found none of the whimsical humour funny at all. Burton's on definite autopilot with this one.