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| 1/13/2004 |
| Big Fish= Chicken of the Sea Minus |
A Movie Review
by Wes Bennett
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Tim Burton’s paper-thin “Big Fish” is basically about a man who liked to tell fantastic stories that everyone loved except for his ungrateful son. The film manages to be both wildly imaginative and wondrous at times, but is hurt by a lack of any substantial plot or theme. After two hours in the theater almost nothing has been accomplished other than a reconciliation between father and son that we could see coming a mile away. Although we see some dreamlike stories told in flashback that are entertaining at first, they grow tiresome because they are essentially pointless. The stories contain very little drama, hardship, or obstacles.
The wacky stories are told by former Alabama salesman Edward Bloom (Albert Finney), who is now an old man and and dying of cancer. These innocent, entertaining stories of himself as a young man (Ewan McGregor) have greatly offended his more literal-minded, journalist son (Billy Crudup) who has long been embarrassed by his father and resents him for always being the center of attention and for what he considers to be a habitual liar.
During the first hour of the film, the absurdist imagery in Edward's tales proves visually intriguing: a storm maroons a car in a tree. A nude figure of a woman drifts in the moonlight above a river. Edward's battles an enormous catfish to get back his gold wedding band. He even crosses through a remote forest to stumble across an isolated town where no one ever leaves.
We also meet some interesting characters: There is a giant named Karl (Matthew McGrory) who proves to be a nice guy, a circus ringmaster (Danny DeVito) who turns into a werewolf, conjoined Asian lounge singers and a witch (Helena Bonham Carter) who has a glass eye that foretells how Edward will die.
But these stories never get beyond their surreal imagery. And they fail to logically connect to the story that is taking place in the present.
Billy Crudup (“Almost Famous”) is burdened with a whiny, irritable character. The son’s character is a prick and has little personality other than resenting his father.
I’m still not sure what the point was. Even the relationship between father and son seems fairly weak. The son acts like he doesn’t know his father at all and that they have nothing in common just because the father told some far fetched stories. What about the entire eighteen years when father and son lived together? Was no love developed when the son was raised? No common experiences or bonds shared? It’s not as if the father was abusive or beat him. Why is the son such a bastard?
The ending leads us to believe that the Dad made up all the stories because the reality wasn’t all that exciting. Yes, real life sucks and its better to just live in a fantasy world. This sounds very similar to of last year’s “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” where Chuck Barris’s life was so boring that he made up stories to prevent madness and perhaps distract himself from truly evaluating himself and his accomplishments.
Ultimately, Burton’s effort fails to measure up to his past brilliant work of “Ed Wood” and “Edward Scissorhands.” I would say that the film that is dreamlike and enjoyable for an hour or so, but is flimsy in terms of substance and fails to connect in a consistent manner.
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| "We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then question the manner in which I provide it." |
- Jack Nicholson
A Few Good Men
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Distributed Beers
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| 5 |
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot |
| 4 |
Guinness Draught |
| 3 |
Newcastle Brown Ale |
| 2 |
Bass Pale Ale |
| 1 |
Samuel Adams Boston Lager |
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