Love Thy Father

Rating: 9/10 (15 April 2006)

The importance of story-telling is explored in 'Big Fish', a movie you have to keep an open mind for, to truly appreciate it's richness. When Will Bloom comes to see his dying father, he tries to get answers, and not just these hackneyed stories that his father loves to tell. The problem is of course, that Will refuses to keep an open mind to interpret these stories, as Edward's wife knows all to well, and Will's wife quickly learns as well. This is quite a tricky story to pull off, but the word 'tricky' must make lightbulbs pop in Tim Burton's head, because I have to hand it to the guy how clever this movie is. Burton cleverly shifts from present day Edward Bloom (played by Albert Finney) to the past Bloom (played with a great full-on accent by Ewan Mcgregor). During the movie, we meet a whole PILE of characters from Edward's life, all of which are highly interesting. The most interesting to me were Steve Buscemi's (no surprise there) Norther Winslow, and the Siamese Asian singing combo (!!) played by Arlene and Ada Tai. You may other favorites. There are also different stories, some of which you'll like (I liked the first visit to Spectre and the encounter with the witch (played by Helena Bonham-Carter) and some you won't (Mine? The second visit to Spectre and his visit to a girl in the town (again played by Helena Bonham-Carter). This is what I love about movies about this, there's all sorts of stories that you can attach to, and you can discuss of what you like and don't like.