Big Fish
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Movie Reviews of Big Fish
Movie Review: The Power of Imagination
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is about the way a man's imagination can shape and define his life. That man, Edward Bloom (played brilliantly by Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney) has a son named Will(Billy Crudup) who does not share his affinity for the fantastic. When doctors find that Edward is dying, Will flies back home to be with the man he never understood, in some effort to know the man, and not the stories he told. What Will learns throughout the course of the film is that the man is the stories he told.
When Edward tells about the day that Will was born, he creates a story about a BIG FISH that he caught using his wedding ring as bait. Will hates the story and knows the truth, that his father was a travelling salesman, and he was out of town when Will was born. Edward adds color to the story because it means something to him, and the metaphor of the Big Fish is self-evident. The two butt heads and try to reach accords up to the very end, which is very moving. They are well supported by Jessica Lange and Alison Lohman as the older and younger versions of Will's mother, and Edward's wife. A scene toward the end of the movie involving Finney, Lange and a bathtub is one of the most touching in recent memory.
From amid all of the family strife and sadness surrounding the father's illness emerges a wondrous celebration of the human imagination and how it can make any moment special. Truly a film for the ages.
Movie Review: You wish your imagination could be translated so well
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw Big Fish in the theaters 3 times; it was just that compelling to me. A couple people I know didn't really care for it, and some liked it, so liking this movie means having a certain aesthetic taste, but regardless, Big Fish can really be appreciated for its incredible artistic presence, whatever your tastes.
The dialectic back-and-forth between story and real-life is a powerful element in this movie, and the cinematography really fleshes out the fictional scenes to great effect.
One thing I love about Tim Burton is his symbolism. All the imagination he puts into his movies really come through because you can see and feel the symbolism in what happens to the characters and in the style of the scene or how everything looks, and watching Big Fish, I just felt like his depictions of certain sensitivities to life and emotions were so RIGHT. His artistic metaphors, like Ewan McGregor getting entrapped by an eery Snow-White-esque tree, realizing this isn't the way he dies, and then abruptly plummeting from the tree's ensnarings, that's just brilliant, I mean, you're watching something totally unreal happening but you couldn't feel closer to what it means.
In addition the characters are great, they are acted out with nice charisma and charm, and the running theme of the movie has to do with story-telling and imagination itself - so fundamental and ~SO~ good.
Movie Review: "I'VE ALWAYS BEEN A FOOL"...
Summary: 5 Stars
The truth for me, like Edward Bloom, is that I have never been a reasonable man. I believe that this fact taints my views on Big Fish the movie. (I confess I have yet to read the book.)The thing about movies of late is that the public, though demanding more and more in the way of special effects, is less and less willing to suspend their disbelief. This kills a culture's ability to hear (or view) story.
Yet Big Fish is FULL of story.
Big Fish is, in my opinion, a masterpiece. As much as I loved Return of the King's apocryphal Lord of the Rings, Big Fish was the best picture last year (incidentally, Finding Nemo receives my vote for runner up).
So why the dirth of recognition elsewhere?
Our culture has stuck its head in the sand when it comes to accepting the wonderful. By wonderful I do not mean "great." I mean those things that are full of wonder. Be they things that put us in awe, or things that merely make us smile, we have all forsaken, at least to a degree, the wide-open life before us. Have we become too seared by a false sense of maturity and the tepid self-assuredness in the everyday to ever wake to the true and the beautiful?
Not really...
...though some of us, if we are not terribly care-full, will never know the difference.
Get a copy of Big Fish. It is not The Answer, though it may "prime" you--may open your eyes. Your heart may just follow.
Movie Review: 10 STARS ! A whopper of a fish tale !!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Big fish is a movie that takes you on a visual journey on the lines of "Wizard of Oz."
It is the story of a Father who has told the Son a lot of tall tales his whole life. (The movie does a splendid job on bringing these tales to life)
As the son grows up, he feels totally alienated from his Father, because he does not have the slightest idea of who he really is. His whole life, in the son's eyes, has been one big fish tale.
Through all these tales, we see Edward Bloom (The Father) from sliding down a hospital corridor as a baby, to time literally standing still as he meets his future wife,to him meeting a witch who predicts how he will die , to him meeting Karl, the biggest giant in the world.Also we get to visit the little town of Specter,a town so friendly and laid back, that you must take your shoes off and throw them over the telephone line just to enter!
There are many adventures,and though the special effects are wonderful, there is a deeper lying love story of mother-father, father-son underlying in this story.
The story is visually stimulating, and part fairy tale, part truth. It is sad, yet serious.
But it is thoughly enjoyable to watch.
It is also a tear jerker too, so make sure you have kleenex at the ending.
I highly recomend this movie to people of all ages. You will love it!
Movie Review: The one that got away
Summary: 5 Stars
There is a chasm between my father and I that films don't help close...case in point...Field of dreams...end of the movie, Costner playing catch with his dad...I"m weeping. I call my dad and ask him if he wants to go to a baseball game...he says " Well, why? It's on Sports Channel". And the when he saw the movie he said " I liked it...except for the end. How could the guy play catch with his dad. It didn't make sense".
This movie is not about a father like my father, but one that is fantastical rather than realistic and I am certain he would never get this movie. I however believe that anyone who has felt that lack of understanding their parents will get this movie.
I have actually avoided this movie because several of my friends didn't like it. I don't understand it. I think it is one of my favorite Tim Burton films...and maybe in some ways, it is the one that got away....
I loved this movie...Ewen McGregor, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Crudup, and host of others...Bonham Carter, Buscemi...it is an amazing cast. And the combination of sentimentality and stylization is perfect for Burton, who is one of our most sylistic directors. The storytelling is incredible...fantastic, funny, awe inspiring. This is a unique, unsung gem.
It may not bridge the gap between all fathers and sons...but it certainly is a story well told.