Big Fish Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)December 29th, 2003
Big Fish
Rental
We're all accustomed to Tim Burton making quirky, interesting movies. Well, this movie is quirky and interesting, but yet, if you didn't know it was Tim Burton, you never would guess it, besides the meticulous construction of the fictional world inside the head of hero Ed Bloom. But Burton's usual skill with whimsy and spirit is dampened in this film; the surreality has no heart, no aim. The unfocused quality of the story gives me pause. I tried to find meaning within the methods of the intricate web of back stories and meandering tall tales and apply them to the present-day plot line involving Bill Crudup. Perhaps we are supposed to follow Crudup's character's growth and discovery ourselves, but much of the time I felt locked out. It's a romantic fiction, an adventure, and a quirky character comedy, with a warm, glowing center, but it takes far more than three licks to get to the center of this treat.
Big Fish is two movies: a fantastical story of Bloom, a glowing, soft focus small town hero, a big fish in a small pond who talks his way into an unbelievably spectacular and interesting life, including winning his Dulcinea through chivalric labors. In this world, Ewan is young Bloom, and Alison Lohman is his heart's desire. In the other movie, Crudup knows his grandstanding father only as old, loud Albert Finney and his mother as indulgent Jessica Lange, normal people whose only peculiarity is Finney's tendency to tap dance behind a wall of fiction and not get close to anyone (and usurp all attention for himself).
The two movies do not marry until the very end, in a swirling maelstrom of conclusion and resolution that mostly satisfies, but we ambled so far and wide getting here, I can't say I fully enjoyed the trip. I say mostly satisfies, in that we never know where the stories ended and the man began - we, as well as Crudup, are forced to accept Bloom as he is. The physical and acting perfection of the cross-generational casting of Lohman and Lange in particular was spooky and stunning, as was that of McGregor and Finney.
Episodically, the featured moments of Bloom's life are diverting, interesting, and hold your interest, but they do not feed the story or build any sense of character, of any of the participants or their witnesses. Helena Bonham Carter is used as usual as a freaky funky side character, tying together plotlines in a logic-defying turn. All the performances are as convincing as they can be, Finney's in particular; it is sometimes hard to see why Crudup would have such trouble connecting with this man, but as soon as Crudup finds his closure, we realize old Bloom had nothing to offer us as he seemed to do in the beginning. Watching this movie is like trying to recall a memory dancing at the edge of your mind.
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These reviews (c) 2003 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
