Director:
Tim Burton
Starring:
Ewan McGregor
Albert Finney
Billy Crudup
Jessica Lange
Alison Lohman
Helena Bonham Carter
Robert Guillaume
Danny De Vito
Release: 25 Dec. 03
IMDb
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Big Fish
BY: DAVID PERRY
Tim Burton’s credentials as a master of the surreal mood
piece may be waning, or at least it’s become so awkwardly predictable that
his Big Fish -- an answer to the omnipresent auteur’s proto-storytelling film (a genre that
includes everything from Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane to Bryan Singer’s
The
Usual Suspects to David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr.) -- turns out to be a bore
among the absurd set pieces. His three ring circus, which includes regulars
like editor Chris Lebenzon, costume designer Colleen Atwood, and composer
Danny Elfman, is amazing to admire, even if its slowly been diluted by
competing ringmasters and the unctuous travels of Burton himself.
Set around the hugely unbelievable tales of a dying pater familias (Finney)
to his grown son (Crudup), the picture comes off as a chance for Burton to
explain himself. He’s essentially acknowledging that his offbeat world of
undead pests, lethal digits, and alien invasions are sometimes too much, but
at the same time offering the idea that within these tall tales are essences
of truth, not just in happenings but in understanding human nature. This is
true, certainly, which is why films like Edward Scissorhands and Batman were
heralded upon their release. He’s primed himself as a superior to Ed Wood by
finding artistry in Wood’s life that was missing in his films.
For that reason, Ed Wood is Burton’s perfect mea culpa, even if its built
around the fantasy of another man’s mind. Big Fish comes as a postscript
with little to add to the preexisting text. Even if the film had been good
-- which it isn’t particularly -- it’s purpose for existence is negligible
in the least.
[Postscript: Kudos to the casting crew behind Big Fish, who found a previously
unnoticed resemblance between Jessica Lange and Alison Lohman, who play the
older and younger versions of the same character. The likeness is enough to
forgive them for thinking an added mole will make Ewan McGregor and Albert
Finney look like each other.]
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