Posted: 12/22/2003

Big Fish

(2003)

by Josh Gloer

Everyone dreams of being something bigger, something better. Everyone dreams of leaving something behind for the world to remember them by. Everyone dreams of living an exciting life.

When director Tim Burton released his latest film, Big Fish, the story of a man, his life, his dreams and his legacy, it seems like the dream wasn’t quite complete. While using the fantastic imagery that filmgoers have grown to expect in his past films, Big Fish simply flops as the film’s construction seems more like a book of short fiction than a two hour tale.

When Will Bloom (Billy Crudup) gets the news that his father Ed (Albert Finney) is dying, he is unmoved. The pair haven’t spoken in years as Will can no longer stand his father’s inability to deal with normal life in a normal fashion as the old man continues to communicate solely through the same fables and myths about his younger years as he has his entire life; an act that has prevented his son from ever truly knowing his father. But when Will begins to hear these stories for the final time, he begins to uncover facts about the real Ed Bloom, a man he was never allowed to know, and he finally understands the man behind the stories.

In what seems like one tale after another, the only common strand running through the plot being that the protagonist is always Ed Bloom and they always seem to draw toward water, Big Fish viewers are taken on a disappointing journey through the old man’s life. In his younger years, Ed (played by Ewan McGregor) takes his big time ambition and conquers witches, giants and the Japanese army in his attempts to find his happiness. When he glimpses his future wife Sandra (Allison Lohman) in a circus tent he finally feels a sense of short lived purpose, it is the only scene that allows any emotional investment, and then film is over. Big Fish touches on several important issues—life, death, love— but seems to only scratch the surface. This film is worth a watch, but don’t expect a Burton classic.

The story is well acted as Albert Finney manages to portray the desperation of a man losing his life, and scared of his memory being lost with it. Ewan McGregor illustrates a likable naivety as the audience is allowed to see the old man’s depiction of himself. The cast verges on all-star as surprise appearances by Steve Buscemi as poet Norther Winslow, Danny DeVito as circus ringleader Amos Calloway meet with the rising Allison Lohman, and the well established Jessica Lange and Helena Bonham Carter.

Special effects seem to have the power to make of break movies in this fantasy-esque genre, and while they didn’t make Big Fish, they certainly didn’t hurt it either. A plot chalked full of giants, underwater cars, enormous catfish and lions (OK, the head in the lion gag looked pretty fake), there was never a moment of disruption as the believability never suffered through the failure of technology.

Unfortunately, good acting and believable special effects weren’t enough to reel this one in and it seemed to get away. The solid concept and entertaining stories were never cohesive enough to involve the audience much leaving the viewer emotionally unattached. While the final scene in which father and son seem to reunite, if only for a moment, is very well done as we see the emotions of both men for the first time.

Josh Gloer is one of our LA staffers. He is a screenwriter working his way up the Hollywood ladder.

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