Review of Big Eyes (2014) by Daniel Y — 11 Nov 2016

Big Eyes is a film that I walked into expecting it to be very whimsical and fantasy like, due to the fact that it was directed by Tim Burton, and though I don't usually find that as a problem, seeing as how it is his style, but when it gets repetitive and rather quite predictable, that's when it can turn into a problem.

So, walking in I didn't really expect much realism, but, to ky surprise, this film was surprisingly normal. So normal, in fact, that half way through I totally forgot that it was directed by him. Now that doesn't mean that a bit of his style doesn't seep through here and there, because it does and it's totally noticable, but in an odd way it ties in rather quite well with the story.

Now saying a film is realistic doesn't mean it's guaranteed to be good. The real reason why this movie is good is due to the lead characters and the people portraying those leads, such as Margaret Keane.

She was a very well crafted and emotional character that I felt for throughout the entire film and most of this is due to Amy Adams terrific performance as her and the character Walter Keane and just how nasty, disagreeable, and down right insulting he truly is.

Walter Keane, who of which is played pretty damn well by Christoph Waltz, is such an asshat that if you were to find a pictionary and look up the word asshat, you'd find a picture of him, because taking someones art, or life in this matter, and calling it off as your own just to gain fame and fortune is truly one of the most dickish things to do to anyone.

Now there are a couple of problems that I had with the movie and that is Christoph Waltz got a bit too cartonish in some scenes whenever he was playing Walter, mainly towards the final act. Also, there are some subplots and side characters that I would've like to have explored a bit more than I got to such as DeeAnn, palyed by Krysten Ritter, and her friendship with Margaret and her as person in whole and the character of Danny Houston, who, I felt, was the unnecessary narrator for the film and the film could've done fine on its own without him and if they were to have done that, why not get more into depth about him, because in some cases I didn't know whether or not the main character was the reporter or Margaret, because they kept flip flopping back and forth between them in the first act, and some small parts of the second act.

But other than that I had no problems with this movie and I do recommend it to anyone who has yet to see it.