Could have done more

Rating: 7/10 (8 September 2008)

Tim Burton is such a predictable director of films that even when, on the surface, he seems to be stretching himself, he's actually merely distorting art towards his own relentlessly immature aesthetic. In a sense he's the dark filmic counterpoint to Steven Spielberg's gauzey light pabulum. Neither has a fundamental grasp of what it is to be human, nor the essence of a good tale. Quirkiness does not equal interesting. If you doubt that you must find Tourette's sufferers fascinating rather than annoying.
Big Fish is TB's attempt to do 'adult' drama, yet it so desperately tries to rip off the best in other films- even less successful ones like Forrest Gump, a tale similarly set in Alabama. Along with that film's everyman-ness Big Fish tries to channel the warmth of My Dog Skip, the father-son dynamic of October Sky, & the rites of passage feel of Stand By Me. While it does not succeed as well as the aforementioned trio this is a good movie. Yet, dammit, with another director this could have been a great movie, certainly a lot better than Burton's previous bests- the flawed but interesting Ed Wood and Planet Of The Apes. Instead, it's maybe just a little better. It's like when you see the goddess of your dreams but she turns out to be an Anti-Semite, smoker, or lesbian.
Let me remove myself from despair & give you the capsule tale: an old talespinner- Edward Bloom (Albert Finney) is dying and his son, Will (Billy Crudup), wants to know the reality behind the stories that so charm everyone else- including Ed's wife Sandra (Jessica Lange) and Will's wife Josephine (Marion Cotillard). The last few days of Ed's life give way to flashbacks and fantasies. The young Ed (Ewan McGregor) has all sorts of adventures: he meets a giant named Karl (Matthew McGrory), discovers a Utopian town called Spectre, befriends a witch, catches an elusive legendary big fish, and joins a circus run by a werewolf named Amos Calloway (Danny DeVito). He joins the circus to get information on the girl of his dreams- the young Sandra (Alison Lohman) who's engaged to his childhood nemesis. Later, he becomes a military spy and rescues a pair of gorgeous Chinese Siamese twins named Ping and Jing from the Red Army. Still, this is overall a good film- there is a wonderful sequence where young Ed 1st sees Sandra and time stops. He walks through hoops and juggler's balls fall to the ground as he walks by. This is a great sequence because it does simulate that feeling, but we've seen the time-stop before. What makes the scene a winner is that, to compensate for that momentary sensation, time has to speed up. Doing so causes Ed his opportunity to meet and woo Sandra for a few years.
This is truly unique, but- alack- the only instance of using fantasy to serve a narrative purpose, and not just be 'ooh-ah' fantastical! That TB only does this once in the film confirms it was a happy accident, not an understood exercise of filmic control. Still, the acting of Finney and McGregor is superb, as are the other supporting performances.