Review of Big Eyes (2014) by Manny C — 04 Jan 2015

Amy Adams delivers a picture perfect turn as Margaret Keane, an artist who might have just been an unhappy housewife if not for her gumption to from her con artist husband, Walter (Christoph Waltz). Margaret is the artist behind the famed portraits of saucer-eyed children that art critics thumbed their noses at. Walter came up with the idea of marketing his wife's so-called low art into a merchandising industry. What made Margaret unhappy is the fact that Walter took credit for the paintings, not to mention other ways he wronged her before she finally left him. 'People don't but lady art,' he tells her.

Big Eyes sounds like a cliched Lifetime movie about a women being exploited, but thankfully it becomes something deeper, rowdier, funny and touching due to Adams' incredible talent for playing Margaret without an ounce of patronization, and director Tim Burton, who laces the film with all the hallmarks of a fable. Big Eyes serves as a companion to his triumphant 1994 feature Ed Wood, a film also written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszeswki, which also celebrates the power of kitsch.

So what's Margaret left to do? She has an ex threatening for custody of their daughter so she marries Walter, who convinces nightclub owner Enrico Banducci (Jon Polito) to display Margaret's paintings, near the toilets. Margaret's work then skyrockets to fame when Walter hits on the idea of cheaply selling them as reprinted posters and calenders.

Things go sour when womanizing Walter becomes abusive, prompting Margaret to walk away and go to Hawaii where she becomes a Jehovah's Witness and gathers the courage to reveal the truth in a radio interview in 1970. This leads to a funny as hell courtroom scene in which Margaret and Walter must display their painting skills in front of a judge. Burton turns the act of watching Walter sweat into comedy gold without losing any of the human toll Margaret felt as a woman being exploited.

Oscar winner Waltz is mostly a ham, and you wonder why such an unrestrained performance could lead someone like Margaret to fall for him to begin with. Thankfully we have Adams to give us someone to root for by never flinching on Margaret's strengths. It's a dazzling, award-caliber performance.

Burton clearly empathizes with Margaret's plight, without a hint of irony or condescension. Margaret fully believes in her work no matter what anyone says, much like Burton, who recently displayed his own paintings at New York's Museum of Modern Art that attracted huge crowds but critical jeers. Big Eyes suffers from tonal shifts and pacing issues, but it's Burton's most personal film in years, a salute to the drive of every artist no matter how marginalized. Walter passed away in 2000, a famed con artist. Margaret is 87 and still painting today. In Big Eyes she gets the last laugh, and Burton one of his best films in ages.