fling93 loves fishies

Big Fish Review

While I was in Houston, we caught Big Fish. Er… I don’t mean we went fishing and caught a big fish, I mean we saw Tim Burton’s new movie, Big Fish (fishing is a poopie sport). As you might expect, it was a cute movie with some creative imagery, with some minor flaws.

The story is about Will, played by Billy Crudup (the guitarist in Almost Famous), who grew up hearing fantastic stories from his father, Edward Bloom, about his life. However, Will’s now married and expecting his first child, and is somewhat estranged from his father, Edward, because he resents the fact that he made up so much that he doesn’t feel like he knows who his father is. As Edward becomes seriously ill, Will starts reliving some of the stories and begins to learn that there was more truth to the stories than he had thought. The movie intercuts between real-world scenes of Will interacting with his dying father and the stories that his father tells (starring Ewan MacGregor as the young Edward Bloom).

Due to this structure, balance between the two storylines is pretty important, and this is the film’s major weakness. While the stories themselves are quite engrossing, the real-world segments are rather dull by comparison — to the point that you completely lose interest in them and end up just waiting impatiently for the next story to start. Perhaps this is on purpose, to illustrate why Edward would embellish so much, but given how much the movie’s pacing suffers because of it, I rather doubt it. The other problem is that the stories actually aren’t quite as fantastical and wondrous as you might expect, especially given Burton’s previous works, like Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice and even Batman.

Basically, I think the movie would have greatly benefited by making Will much more interesting and sympathetic. We really don’t learn very much about him at all except for his resentment of his father’s stories, and since those stories are the most interesting thing about the film, we end up taking Edward’s side (especially since Edward is a much more interesting and amusing fellow, played wonderfully by Albert Finney) to the point that we’re wishing for the son to get his comeuppance by finding out the stories are actually all completely true. But this is not one of those fantasy or children’s movies where disbelieving adults are shown to be in the wrong — the actual truth is actually firmly based in reality. So a more sympathetic and interesting son would help you care a little more about him reconnecting with Edward, and thus provide a much-needed balance between the real-world and fantasy storylines (and perhaps not lead you to mistakenly expect the film to veer off entirely into fantasy). Besides, the movie is supposed to be through Will’s eyes.

But despite these flaws, the film as a whole works pretty well. Burton’s trademark humor is there in spades, especially in the fantasy segments, which are, as you might expect, visually stunning and very well directed. The effects blend in well enough that it wasn’t until after the film that we realized that they must have used computers for some of the shots. And while the real-world scenes suffer in comparison, Albert Finney is actually sufficiently funny and entertaining to carry them along.

And in the end, the message of the film still shines through as Will finally gets into the act and gives Edward the storybook ending you know he really deserves. And as the doctor says, given a choice between the boring facts and an embellished story, which one would we really prefer to hear? Which is why anybody tells stories in the first place. And like all of the stories in the movie, the final story’s only real flaw is that it’s too short, but that’s the mark of a good story — they leave you wanting more.

Of course, the biggest disappointment of all is that, for a movie purportedly about a big fish, it was actually mostly about people! I was hoping to see as many cute little swimming fishies as in Finding Nemo (Best. Movie. Ever!), but there weren’t that many at all. There’s the big fish that’s the subject of the first story (and you get to see that fish a couple more times), plus a few other fish in the background, but that’s pretty much it. The big fish ended up getting about as much screen time as Wanda did in A Fish Called Wanda (quite an upsetting movie, I must say!), which is to say not that much at all. :(

Overall rating: 7 out of 10 cute smiley fishies (would’ve been higher if it was balanced better).

…or, perhaps more appropriately, ONE BIG FISH!

(okay, you’ll have to wait till I fly back home for the wondrous MS Paint picture… just use your imagination for now)