Big Fish Release Date: December 10, 2003 Starring: Albert Finney, Ewan McGregor, Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman, Billy Crudup, Helena Bonham Carter, Danny DeVito, Steve Buscemi Directed by: Tim Burton GLENN KENNY'S REVIEW (posted 12/11/03)
It’s interesting that in reaching beyond the purely imaginative and instead going for the “human”—a realm in which one might have suspected he would be most unreliable—director Tim Burton has ended up making his best film. Big Fish, adapted by screenwriter John August from Daniel Wallace’s novel, is the tale of a southern small-town dad (Albert Finney in the contemporary scenes; Ewan McGregor in those set in the past—both actors are spectacular) whose fish stories, as it were, alienate his petulant adult son (Billy Crudup) to the extent that he doesn’t talk to the old man anymore—until he learns that his father’s dying. Returning home from Paris with pregnant wife in tow, he’s none too thrilled with the repeated tales involving witches, circuses, werewolves, giants, and such—although Burton clearly eats them up, and renders them beautifully, warmly, and, yes, very imaginatively—and wants his larger-than-life dad to tell him the truth for once. Crudup’s character is so self-involved that it never once occurs to him that—oh, never mind. This romp of a movie won’t benefit from anybody’s descriptions of it. Big Fish is not just Burton’s best film, it’s his least flawed—it really does just bound along, an exemplary, and moving, entertainment from start to finish. And though Burton’s not really considered an action director, with these players—the aforementioned, as well as Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman as the younger Lange (and, boy, the resemblance is frightening), Danny DeVito, Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Buscemi, and more—he doesn’t have to be. In any case, he gets great work out of all. Big Fish really is a big delight.
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