This is a Tim Burton film with a different vibe...

Rating: 8/10 (20 October 2018)

... than most of his more gothic fantasy oriented films. Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney both play the same character--Edward Bloom. Finney is the older, present day Edward Bloom and McGregor plays him as a teenager and younger man. Finney's segments are set in the present and McGregor's scenes are set as flashbacks, but they are fantasized versions of various events in his life. In the present, Finney is terminally ill and his son (Billy Crudup) is set on finding out the real versions of various stories his father had told him over the years. Crudup is frustrated with his father, as he feels that he's never been told the truth about his father's life and that the stories he tells are just too fantastic to be true.
His quest for the entirety of the film is to find out the truth about the real stories. Anyway, the flashback/fantasy sequences that feature McGregor are the stories that Finney is telling his son. The story goes back and forth between past and present. The title of the film comes into p lay with the repeated motif of "big fish in a small pond." Edward Bloom was just too big and fantastic to be living in small town Alabama.
McGregor's fantasy sequences are easily the best and most entertaining sequences of the film. We see him as the star student who can do no wrong; we see him leave his tiny hometown and try to make it elsewhere. He sees his dream girl (Alison Lohman) at a party and spends three years trying to learn about her and find her. He is determined to make her his wife. Along the way, he joins the circus and ends up being employed by Danny DeVito. He also meets a giant and a set of conjoined twins. There is a hilarious scene with Steve Buscemi.
Tim Burton stock pl ayer, Helena Bonham Carter is excellent as the girl who harbors a lifelong crush on Ewan McGregor, but ultimately never got him to see her in the same way. Scottish McGregor's attempt at a thick Alabama accent is decent--at least he maintains it throughout the film.
This film was so much fun and a nice change of pace from the usual Tim Burton fare. I wish there were more scenes with Ewan McGregor and less scenes with stick-in-the-mud Billy Crudup. This film could have also used more Steve Buscemi--he's hilarious. Jessica Lange also lends support as the older version of Mrs. Bloom and Marion Cotillard appears as Billy Crudup's wife. Recommended.