Patchily successful

Rating: 5/10 (29 November 2005)

Young man, estranged from his storytelling father for years, returns home to his father's death-bed and learns more tall tales, more legends, and how sometimes true stories are saved from the mundane by a dash of colorful whimsy. Director Tim Burton obviously felt a kinship to this journey, and to the relationship between father and son, but he can't seem to work up much energy or enthusiasm in the present day sequences (this despite the fact Albert Finney seems to be having a ball). The fantastic flashbacks, with Ewan McGregor as the young Finney, are fabulous however, and these episodes are the best things in "Big Fish". The film is handsomely-made, well-conceived, but you have to get through many lulls to find the good stuff, as if it were a crime to have one completely good movie. The production is very bright and beguiling, although comparisons to "The Wizard of Oz" (by one professional critic) seem somewhat premature. ** from ****