Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 1:50 - Released 12/25/03
BIG FISH
Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 1:50 - Released 12/25/03
How puzzling it is that Ewan McGregor’s most famous role
to date, that of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels,
is his most boring. Although I’ve not been particularly thrilled
with his performances in those films (light-saber-rattling is
fine, but it’s not really the same as acting), I’ve
loved almost everything else I’ve seen from him. In Big
Fish, he plays the young, flashback version of Albert Finney,
who continually regales everyone he knows with fanciful, quasi-supernatural,
decidedly unbelievable stories about himself and his life. In
other words, McGregor gets to do all the stuff Finney says
he did. Written by John August (from the novel by Daniel Wallace)
and directed by Tim Burton, Big Fish is the cinematic equivalent
of a big fish story—fun, entertaining, too crazy to be true,
and all the more enjoyable for it.
In the mold of a fairy tale but with Burton’s undeniably
weird style, the film follows the attempt by Will Bloom (Billy
Crudup) to sort out the truths and fabrications of the now famously
overblown life story of his dying father Ed (Finney), who insists
that everything he has ever told his son is true. The fact that
Will doesn't believe him has caused a rift lasting since the day
Will married his wife Josephine (Marion Cotillard) and his dad
monopolized the wedding guests with his outrageous yarns. But
now that Ed has been diagnosed with cancer, Will makes a last-ditch
attempt to ascertain the true story, however boring, uneventful,
or self-incriminating it might be. Lucky for us, he still gets
the old familiar version.
As part of this film’s success lies in its twists, turns,
and surprises, I must warn readers that the following may contain
elements best left a secret. If you have not seen the movie yet,
you might want to stop here and come back after you have.
Ed’s tale is full of larger-than-life characters, none
larger than himself, and it begins when he is a 10-year-old boy
(played by Perry Walston). Seeking to either prove or dispel rumors
about an elderly one-eyed woman (Helena Bonham Carter) who lives
in a spooky old house at the edge of town and is reported to be
a witch, he pays her a visit and asks to peek under her eye patch.
According to local legend, one can see the circumstances of his
death by looking into the old lady’s glass eye. Though we
don’t get to see Ed’s demise, he apparently does, and
he therefore reasons that since he knows how he goes, he doesn’t
ever need to fear dangerous things he does or encounters. It would
be a bit freeing, I suppose, if you see yourself as an old man
keeling over into a bowl of oatmeal, you’d know not to fear
sky-diving or bungee jumping or unsafe sex. Just watch out for
oatmeal.
After growing up in the small town of Ashton, Alabama, Ed’s
subsequent adventures include making friends with a giant (played
by 7’6”-tall Matthew McGrory), leaving home to discover
a small town where no one wears shoes, and meeting his wife Sandra
(played in flashbacks by Allison Lohman and in present-day scenes
by Jessica Lange). He also serves in occupations as varied as
a circus worker, a wartime soldier, a door-to-door salesman, and
a bank robber, among other things. Along the way he meets a poet
laureate (Steve Buscemi), a lycanthropic ringmaster (Danny DeVito),
a two-headed woman (Ada and Arlene Tai), and another mysterious
woman who played an important part in his life (also Bonham Carter).
This movie is certainly an entertaining romp through a varied collection of settings, characters, and scenarios, and at first does seem to fit Will’s assessment of his father’s story: “It doesn’t all make sense and most of it didn’t happen.” But as the film progresses, thanks to Burton’s own clever storytelling and a key final scene, we see that with minor alterations most of the bizarre details can indeed be reconciled with reality. That and his eye for imagery combine to make this a wondrously tall tale with a supernatural twist. ****½
