Big Fish - a new film by Tim Burton

Yeah, definitely let us know. I just heard that it was really surreal, and very good. Some dude from Premiere magazine mentioned that on the radio this morning.

Lucky gal! Do tell. I'm a Tim Burton fan, and a decent review by maxisoneinamillion might sway me to get out to a movie theatre again.

I want in on the details! I want to see this movie.

Count me in.

So, mac, tell us all about it...

I liked Big Fish! I think of Tim Burton's films as being imaginative but dark, sometimes creepy. This was quite imaginative, but he went the other way and made a (mostly) bright, human fantasy film about a young man trying to sort out the truth among the tall tales his father has always told. There were a couple of scary/gross moments, just to remind us that it was a Burton film perhaps.

Every time I see Billy Crudup on the screen, I wonder why he hasn't made it big. He's a wonderful actor. He plays the young man who has been estranged from his father, but tries to learn more about him.

I like Albert Finney, and it was good to see him in a leading role. Ewan McGregor plays him as a young man (and probably has more screen time), and it makes me want to go back and watch Tom Jones or Two for the Road again, because I think that it was inspired casting. McGregor definitely reminds me of Finney as a young man. Their Southern accents bothered me, but I grew up here. I think most people wouldn't have a problem with that. Together they play the father, and I had no problem believing them as the same man.

Jessica Lange's role wasn't substantial; I wonder if there was more in the original script. Allison Lohman was interesting (and again, well cast) as the same character as a young woman. Lange and Finney have a few lovely scenes. Helena Bonham Carter is wasted in a small role.

I have to think about the women in Tim Burton's films. The women's roles in Big Fish were not well written, but the story is mostly about the men. Has he ever directed a film with a strong female lead?

There are some special effects in the film, but they never take over, they help to tell the tall tales that Finney/McGregor tell throughout the film.

I found the film to be very moving. The father/son relationship was the center of the plot, but the wild stories made me laugh and cry and wonder. The flights of fancy were astonishing. You never know what might happen next.

Thanks for the review, mac! I'd been on the fence about whether I wanted to see Big Fish, because the reviews I've seen have been very mixed (people seem to either love it or hate it), but you may have swayed me into seeing it. I've been a big Albert Finney fan since I saw Tom Jones, and what you say about his performance makes it sound like a movie I'd enjoy.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it, bree.

Oooooooh, there's a review to send me to the theatre.
Setanta might even like this.

I love Big Fish and the ending was great.

Tim Burton directed Batman Returns with a strong woman lead - Catwoman.

Good point about Catwoman, BlueMonkey. I was watching Edward Scissorhands the other day, and had forgotten all the women in that. And of course, there's Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas...

That last scene she has with the whip and coutning down her last lives was awsome-that kiss was woman power there.

I don't know why the reviewers are having trouble with "Big Fish"....

It's a literal story of a man's fantasies and a son coming to terms with them. Burton's props, sets, flashbacks..who would have expected anything different?

Albert Finney's performance is understated but good never the less.

A co-worker just saw this. She was absolutely raving about it. I will go out and see this!

Let us know what you think about it ehbeth!

I finally got around to seeing Big Fish today. I found it entertaining, and I admired many of the performances, but I wasn't as moved by it as I had expected to be. I'm not certain why I felt that way (which probably isn't surprising, because whether or not you're moved by something is like whether or not you find a joke funny: you either do or you don't, and that's all the explanation there is). Part of the problem may have been that it just isn't my type of movie: I tend to be fairly literal-minded (some might say, boringly literal-minded), so movies that involve large doses of the fantastic and the whimsical generally don't have a lot of appeal for me. But, as I said, it's an entertaining movie, and I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from seeing it just because my eyes failed to tear up at the end.

mac, I'll have to take your word for it about the authenticity of Finney's and McGregor's accents, but I wondered why the Billy Crudup character didn't have any trace of a Southern accent. Was it a deliberate choice, to emphasize (I almost wrote "accentuate") the differences between the father and son (romantic, Southern tall-tale-teller versus dry, stick-to-the-facts newspaperman)? But if so, then (tiny spoiler alert here) how do you reconcile that with the ending of the movie?

Crudup's lack of accent bothered me too. It is possible to lose one's accent (I have) but I would have liked to have seen his boyhood accent creep back in after he'd been home a while. Probably too much to ask!