Big Fish Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)December 9th, 2003
BIG FISH
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'When the legend becomes fact, print the legend'
Maxwell Scott, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"
William Bloom (Billy Crudup, "Almost Famous") became estranged from his wildly popular father Ed (Albert Finney, "Erin Brockovich") after one too many of his important achievements were overwhelmed by his dad's frequently-told tall tales. After many years living in Paris with his French wife Josephine (Marion Cotillard, "Taxi 3"), William learns from his mother, Sandra (Jessica Lange, "Titus"), that his dad is dying and it is time for William to try and make his peace with the "Big Fish."
Tim Burton rebounds, if not spectacularly, with his homey, comedic Southern gothic rumination on the power of myth-making. Burton's direction of John August's ("Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle") adaptation of the Daniel Wallace novel is episodic and tonally uneven in its acting, but he socks over an emotional payoff with the film's conclusion.
William Bloom's life and heritage have been embroidered from the day he was born, which Ed immortalized with the tale of his encounter of a legendary, female catfish. 'The only way to catch an uncatchable woman is to offer her a wedding ring,' he says, recounting how he had used his as a lure, then let the big fish go so as not to incur the wrath of his beloved. Will and his pregnant wife's presence at Ed's bedside presents the opportunity for Ed to go over his life story once more and Burton flashes back and forth weaving his tale like the storytelling of Rob Reiner's "The Princess Bride" with more present day action and less linearity.
As a child, Ed dared a visit to a one-eyed witch (Helena Bonham Carter, "The Heart of Me") whose glass eye was said to foretell one's own death. After his buddies fates are shown, Ed's is hidden from us, but his reaction lets us know that this vision will empower him for years to come. He describes a radical growth spurt that kept him in traction (in a machine that looks like a product of "Edward Scissorhands's" Inventor Vincent Price's lab, one of the few truly Burtonesque visual touchstones) for years. Then, as a young man (Ewan McGregor, "Moulin Rouge"), he takes on a real, cave-dwelling monster that's been eating everything in town. But that real giant, Karl (Matthew McGrory, "House of 1000 Corpses"), is onto Ed's psychology, so Ed decides to get the nuisance out of town by accompanying him himself. Ashton, North Carolina throws a parade to escort the duo out and the witch appears to offer Ed one last piece of advice - that the way to become the biggest fish is never to be caught.
Ed takes a detour that leads him into the timeless town of Spectre, whose denizens's shoes all dangle from a power line while they happily cavort barefoot on streets of grass. After observing famous poet Norther Winslow's (Steve Buscemi, "Mr. Deeds") inability to finish a poem and being told by Mildred (Missi Pyle, "Bringing Down the House") that he's quite a catch, Ed decides to hightail it out of there, but not before promising young Jenny (Hailey Anne Nelson) that he'll return someday. Ed and Karl then fall upon a circus where Karl is particularly welcomed, towering over ringleader/owner Amos's (Danny DeVito, "Death to Smoochy") Colossus by several feet. There, Ed catches a glimpse of the girl he believes he is destined to marry (Alison Lohman, "Matchstick Men," as the young Sandra), and he agrees to work for Amos free, receiving one tidbit of information about her each month. A magical courtship later, Ed has a stint in the Korean War which he escapes with the help of conjoined Korean singing twins Ping (Ada Tai, "Rush Hour") and Jing (Arlene Tai, "Rush Hour") before becoming a traveling salesman who once again finds Spectre and Jenny (Helena Bonham Carter again), now fallen upon hard times.
The wonderful Albert Finney is beautifully cast as the unrepentant charmer. Even though Finney spends most of the film bed-ridden, his Ed is a life force, obviously still madly in love with his wife (he and the woefully underutilized Lange have one marvelous scene in a bathtub). When Ed lures his foreign daughter-in-law in with an elaborate version of a hoary old joke, Finney even caught me unawares with the punchline. Yet while Finney is brilliantly paired up physically with McGregor, McGregor is a major disappointment portraying the younger version of the character. McGregor is all shiny surface optimism, lacking the layers Finney gives the character. Lohman is more successful standing in for Lange, capturing the older actress's essence. What an amazing year for the actress, believably playing a thirteen year old in "Matchstick Men" and a woman of marriageable age here. Billy Crudup, a talented actor, is miscast, neither looking like the progeny of Ed and Sandra, nor ever seeming comfortable in the role of the unforgiving son. McGrory, Buscemi (who makes an amusing reappearance in Ed's tales), DeVito, and Bonham Carter are all pluses in the supporting arena. Robert Guillaume (TV's "Benson") is solid as the long time family doctor, although it is highly questionable that a black man would have been allowed to work as a white woman's obstetrician in the 1930's South.
Production designer Dennis Gassner ("Road to Perdition") does not deliver a Burtonesque landscape, with Amos's traveling circus a particularly missed opportunity. Cinematography by Philippe Rousselot ("Planet of the Apes")'s palette meanders from brilliantly bright (a field of daffodils) to limply pallid (Ed's first meeting with Karl). Original Music by Danny Elfman ("Hulk") is comfortably expected.
Burton does a good job continuing to touch upon the film's themes throughout the film (the woman/fish/Eve metaphor, the tradition of storytelling and its cultural commonalities), but Ed's past is delivered in fits and starts and the love story, which is central, is largely abandoned in the present, leaving a gaping hole. Burton seems unsure of himself here and the film lacks his usual sharp directorial vision - it would have been interesting to see what the Coen brothers would have done with this material. Still, when "Big Fish" comes to its thoroughly expected conclusion, it is quite satisfying nonetheless.
B-
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