Review of Big Fish (2003) by Allison K — 31 Oct 2014

Big Fish is the story of a father who loves to exaggerate his life experiences with tall tales, and the son who has struggled with this because he doesn't feel he ever truly got to know his dad. It bounces back and forth from showing us the fables to showing us the present day where the father is dying and the son has come to visit him. It's a sweet story, and I get the feeling that I should have a deep emotional connection to these characters. Yet somehow I wasn't engaged. I'm not sure if it was the flat performance from Billy Crudup, or my frustration with the character of Ed Bloom because he seemed so unsympathetic with his son, or even Tim Burton's off-the-wall style. Whatever it was, by the end of the film I wasn't overcome with emotion as I would expect in this type of story. That's not to say it isn't a good movie, in fact there are a number of scenes that I quite liked. In particular, any scene with Albert Finney and Jessica Lange was amazing, most notably the bathtub scene almost broke my heart. I kind of liked what Marion Cotillard added to the story as well, because she has that sweet caring personality that fit in nicely as a go-between for the father and son.

These next few sentences might be considered spoilers, so be warned: I think one of my issues with Big Fish was simply that I was expecting some kind of "A-Ha" moment. I was anticipating all the threads of Ed's stories to link in logically to his past. Yet at the end we discover that some of the things are almost exactly as he described while others aren't even close to reality. It created this complex tapestry of fact and fiction which just didn't make sense all coming from the same man's mind. I can definitely see how some people connect strongly with Big Fish. It has a lot of heart, and certainly makes you think about your own relationship with your father. I wonder if, with a few tweaks, this movie might impact me more significantly. It has a nice style of narrative, and actually transitions into the flashbacks in logical ways instead of feeling forced. Also, while at times I have trouble connecting emotionally in Tim Burton's strange worlds, he does create a special atmosphere in the flashbacks that make them feel more like a story book. It just doesn't transition all that well for me at the end when they connect the stories with the reality in the exact same style. At the end I wanted a more solid handle on what really happened in the father's life and I don't think they gave that to us.