Review of Big Eyes (2014) by Skyler G — 21 Jan 2015

Big Eyes (2014) - Can you really knock a biopic for remaining faithful to a person's life even at the risk of succumbing to generic boredom?.. In the cases of this particular director who hasn't made a good movie in over a decade, I'll make an exception. "Big Eyes" is directed by Tim Burton and stars Amy Adams and Christophe Waltz, it catalogues the career and life of Margaret Keane, a now famous painter known exclusively for her works dealing mostly with small children with large sympathetic eyes. The film deals mainly with the sheltering of Margaret Keane (Adams) by her manipulative, dominating husband Walter (Waltz) who took credit for Margaret's work for over a decade.

It's a shame that the first "real" movie that Tim Burton makes in over a decade has to be this vapid and shallow. I was really looking forward to seeing this movie, not only because I was interested in seeing Mr. Burton tackling something fresh but also because I was genuinely intrigued by Margaret Keane as an artist and person. If there's one thing this movie nails perfectly it's in its casting as the two leads are superb. Amy Adams brings an immediate likeability and wit to Margaret and Waltz shows-off his uncanny ability to channel the villainous persona to a "T"; in turn making Walter Keane just as un-likeable and revolting as he supposedly was. The problem with this, unfortunately lies within the lean script which allows for absolutely no depth in its characters, thus wasting the talented actors and their work. I don't know any more about these people other than what you could fit on a name tag; the writing is so "black and white" to the point of aggravation because when the plot unravels and the chess pieces start moving, it feels completely insincere. I can't relate to the decisions Margaret made in allowing her husband to dominate her because the movie doesn't bother to explain or even analyse these situations... Instead, we get a by the numbers plot that is basically summed up in the trailer for the movie. And though I do like Christophe Waltz a lot as an actor and he certainly does a good job here, because of the shallow writing, his character suffers the most in making the movie unbearable because of how it paints Walter as a moustache twirling villain without any prior motivation other than "he's just a really bad person". I'm not sure how factual any of this is in relation to the actual events and people, none the less, it still doesn't lend to a very entertaining movie.

Something else that rubbed me the wrong way was the lack of style this movie has. One could argue that Tim Burton dialling back his signature stylization is a step in the right direction, however this movie is so stripped down and bland looking that you'd swear it was directed by someone else altogether. With the exception of some quality lighting and colour grading, the movie is very muted which is a shame because I feel like Burton could have done some very interesting visually within the confines of Keane's work that would have made the film have more of a signature look and feel. Ultimately "Big Eyes" is just another weak addition to the Tim Burton catalogue and clear Oscar bait without much substance. Had the characters been written with a little more depth and the plot not adhere to such a linear formula this would have been a much more interesting movie. I'd say save this one for a rental if you were interested or just skip it altogether; nothing noteworthy here by any means.

GRADE: C.