Review

Review Date: 28-December-03
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Big Fish (2003)

If you know that "Big Fish" is a Tim Burton movie made for release at the holiday season, it's probably unnecessary for me to describe it as a strange, sweet fable — because really, what else could it be? Like "Edward Scissorhands" 13 Christmases ago, "Big Fish" teems with eccentricity, sentiment, and a bittersweet nostalgia for a world where the average person has never been, and maybe never even thought of. Although its varied narrative tones sometimes strike a note of discord, "Big Fish" is a gentle, whimsical, ultimately touching escape from the norm.

The movie meanders back and forth between the present and the past, the concrete and the romantic, at a leisurely pace that suits its Alabama setting. Taking center stage are Albert Finney and Ewan McGregor as old and young versions of the hero, Edward Bloom, a man looking back on his life as it comes to a close. (How lucky is Burton that these two fine actors bear such a strong resemblance to each other?) Even before illness slowed him down, Edward made a habit of revisiting and embellishing upon his experiences, which has angered and alienated his son, Will (Billy Crudup, equally fine). About to embark on fatherhood himself, Will wishes to move beyond the legend and get to the truth about Edward Bloom before it's too late. The movie thus works toward the familiar goal of father-son reconciliation, but, in typical Burton fashion, it takes many wild and winding roads to get there.

The stories that Will is trying to escape all speak to the boundless imagination of his father, whose dreams and hopes for the future have always been jumbo sized. In reveries and recollections, we see young Edward as his hunger for life actually expands the bones of his body; as he becomes the golden child of his small town; and as he discovers somebody as big literally as he is figuratively, a giant with whom he sets out to conquer the world. We watch with uneasy fascination when Edward stumbles into a creepy Dixie Shangri-La, a place that promises to shape his life but threatens also to engulf it. Later, along with Will's wife (Marion Cotillard), we swoon to hear about the moment when Edward first saw his great love Sandra, and the three years of near slavery he endured just for a chance to meet her.

Without this love story the father-son yearnings might not suffice to give the movie its vital personal touch. It would be lamentably pathetic if Edward viewed his whole life as a series of fantastical escapades (pleasantly diverting as they are), but his marriage to Sandra represents the crucial intersection between the real and the ideal. Their devotion to each other is rare and beautiful enough to satisfy his most extravagant desires, yet grounded enough to let him fly as high as he wants without being carried away. (And if Burton got lucky with the Finney/McGregor pair, he was downright blessed to acquire up-and-coming actress Alison Lohman and Jessica Lange to play Sandra; no effort is required to believe that they are younger and older versions of the same lovely woman.)

Just behind the fairy tale wonder of "Big Fish" lies the truth that Will is after, something to do with a bright man of unbridled spirit who wanted more from life than to be a traveling salesman in a world of increasing homogeneity and materialism. But in the end, of course, what both father and son are seeking is not truth but understanding, and this comes from accepting, or at least recognizing, the value of the life-defining myths and beliefs around which men like Edward Bloom (and Tim Burton) have built their lives.

Copyright © 2003 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.