Embellishment

Rating: 8/10 (12 May 2004)

Big Fish is a unique and fascinating movie. While the comparison to The Wizard of Oz may be a little high-reaching(in 1939 The Wizard of Oz was a landmark film beyond what Big Fish is today), I can see why people may make that connection. They are both whimsical tales of adventure. Visually, it is fictive, but not in the way the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter movies are. The chimera in Edward Bloom's mind is understated. We see what we are meant to see: an embellishment of what really happened. Yes, many of the scenes representing Bloom's stories are impossible, but they are not as incredible as other stories and fantasies.

William Bloom(Billy Crudup) is a fellow who started viewing his father as an extraordinary hero, then a tall tale teller and finally as a liar. During his wedding night, William is perturbed when his father tells a story about catching a gigantic fish with a wedding ring. One he's heard since childhood. William feels he is only a "footnote" in the story and his father is telling it merely to stroke his own ego. After this event, William and Edward(Albert Finney) do not speak for three years. When William's mother, Sandra(Jessica Lange), calls to tell of Edward's poor health and ensuing death, he decides to see his father and find the truth about the man he knows only through the outlandish stories he's heard.

The opening scenes show that William is not only upset with his father for telling him these stories, but he's tired of hearing them told to his friends, dates and anyone else old Edward can get an ear from. Flashbacks abound throughout. We soon delve into the visual presentation of these stories as they are told. As William makes it home to see his dying dad, we go back in time to see Edward as a young boy and then as a young man, played with jocund bravado by Ewan McGregor.
As we begin young Edward's adolescence, he is talented at basketball, football and baseball. He, in his own words, is the biggest thing the town of Ashton had ever seen. We are immediately taken into the fictional parts of the tales. First, Ed Bloom encounters a witch, a giant: a man as big as a two story house. An enchanted forest is next, then a werewolf and on and on we go. The town of Spectre is seen like everything else: through the embellishing eye of Edward. This is an important part of the film because it is a place like many may stop in their lives. Its a town that seems like a great place to stay. Yet something is calling Edward somewhere else. It is looked back on with nostalgia and as a would-be wonderful final destination, but not a place to be when you are young and filled with ambition and adventure. This resonates deeply with anyone who has ever found themselves in an unexpected town or city that seemed terrific, yet they knew they had to leave.
One of the most remarkable things about the film is the resemblance between Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney as well as Alison Lohman and Jessica Lange(young and old Sandra). This is simply perfect casting. Many films lack this. They use the same actor for young and old roles. This works much better.
Another of the endearing qualities of the film is that as William slowly realizes his father isn't the liar he thought, the flashbacks become less fairy tale and slowly seem more realistic. This intertwines beautifully. Finally, we see the giant as just an abnormally tall man of about 7'6". We see that the twins from his military exploits aren't really conjoined, but simply identical twins. So in the end, William sees his father for what he is. He's not a liar, and he's not the hero he was to William as a child. He's a tall tale teller. A man who romanticizes his stories and embellishes them so that they are a bit larger than life. The question is, is there any real harm in that, or does it just make life a little sweeter?