Big Fish

The whole story of a man's life is something large, but this movie managed to be entertaining and comical telling a story by dividing it into many stages so well told it feels like it's a little fairy tale, so many aspects and many temporal lines in 2 hours that feels like just a single hour.

The story itself is touching and beautiful while the time placement (involving the wardrobe used and design of the places as well) totally transports the audience to those years, it's colorful and complements the "adventure vibe"

This is undoubtedly a great movie to watch with the family, so every single member can appreciate each other stories and how they all got intertwined.

I approach Tim Burton films with a certain trepidation. Will it be "Edward Scissorhands" or "Batman II?" With Burton you could get a quirky comedy, a dark thriller, or sweet morality tale. And there's always the possibility of Danny DeVito chomping down on a raw fish.

"Big Fish" combines Burton's unusual humor with a heart-wrenching story of a father-son deathbed reconciliation. Albert Finney and Ewan McGregor share the role of Ed Bloom, one of the big fish from the movie's title while an SUV-sized catfish plays the other. Bloom is a metaphorical and literal big fish in the small pond of Ashton, Alabama in this tale told mostly through flashback. Jessica Lange plays his wife and Billy Crudup plays the son, Will, estranged from his father for the past three years. Father and son are reunited as Finney lies dying of cancer.

Ed Bloom has spent his life spinning his personal history into mythological proportions: an early encounter with a very tall man becomes a battle with a house-sized giant; a rural village is depicted as heaven on earth; military service during the Korean War morphs into a behind-the-lines mission that would make Duke Nukem proud. Originally a true believer, Will now knows everything his father has told him was not just an exageration or even a tall tale but an outright lie. In his effort to understand the truth behind his father's stories he learns to love the man as well as the mythology. And Burton delivers a terrific punchline at the end of the film that left me both tickled and weeping, a truly weird emotional state.

Burton deals with mythic themes in "Big Fish." Besides the surface story of the generational tension between father and son he explores the metaphor of the big-fish-in-a-small-pond by examining the impact Ed Bloom has had on the lives he's touched in his workaday contacts with colleagues, customers (he's a traveling salesman), and people in the small towns across the South. Not exactly "It's A Wonderful Life," he still manages to show how all of us -- even the little fish -- have profound effects on the people around us. And of course love -- unrequited and reciprocated -- control almost all of Ed's many adventures.

The acting is wonderful. You will actually believe two Brits and a Scot (Finney, Helena Bonham Carter, and McGregor) are natives of small town Alabama. Lange brings dignity and brio to the role of the long "suffering" wife -- and she still looks great(!)-- you believe she has had a long and loving life with Finney/McGregor. DeVito is a delight in the role of a circus ringmaster. But the scene-stealer is Bonham Carter in the dual role of Jenny and the crone witch.

I rated this movie ten stars and when you see it you'll do the same.

It was either "Cheaper by the Dozen," "The Haunted Mansion" or this. I didn't exactly feel like watching my favorite comedian run around with a horde of little kids cracking bad poopy jokes behind them, and I didn't want to see Eddie Murphy do this either (it was bad enough in last year's "Daddy Day Care"), so I chose to see the more adult-oriented of these three films, and I'm glad I did, because Tim Burton's "Big Fish" is a marvelous film--full of wit and imagination and eerie vibes that sometimes don't fit into Burton's films the way he wants them to--but actually have a purpose here.

"Pee Wee's Big Adventure" is simply one of the best films of all time, and you can quote me on that. That was Burton's breakthrough--then came "Batman," which was very good but slightly lacking in substance, and then came "Edward Scissorhands"--one of my sister's favorite films, a beautiful love story and an eerie fable...but just missing a very small ingredient that kept it from becoming a great movie (perhaps the same with his film "Ed Wood"--a very good film, but not exactly one of my all-time favorites).

I have my doubts as to whether anyone other than Tim Burton could have pulled off "Big Fish." Here's a movie I expected I would dislike and come away feeling a little bit empty--but that's only partially true. The movie doesn't quite exceed on the level it tries to, but as a film, it's one of the best motion pictures of the year.

It stars Albert Finney as Edward Bloom, an old man who loves to exaggerate tales of his past and pass these on to his friends and family. One night his son, William (Billy Crudup), tires of hearing the story about how he caught the town's largest fish in a lake using a gold ring--so he ignores his father for three whole years, until his mother (Jessica Lange) informs Will that his father is dying of cancer, and that he wishes to speak with his son one last time.

Drawn back to his old Alabama hometown with his new wife, Will finally learns the truth about these so-called "exaggerated" stories--and we, as the audience, get to see them in flashback mode. It begins with a young Edward (Ewan McGregor), a "big fish" who was just too small for his own town and had to move away to search for brighter prospects. On his journey he comes across an assortment of odd fellows, including a "Gentle Giant," a failed poet living in a heavenly town named Spectre, and a strange circus ringleader who also happens to be a werewolf.

All of these stories that Edward Senior tells his family relate to their current positions, and to call the film simply beautiful would be what John Candy once said is "the understatement of the year." My particular favorite character was the poet living in Spectre, played by Steve Buscemi (a wonderful supporting actor), who I had no idea played any role in this film prior to viewing the opening credits and seeing "with Steve Buscemi" appear on screen.

Buscemi's poet has been working on a particular poem for twelve years whilst living in Spectre. "Can I see it?" asks Edward. It says, "Roses are red, violets are blue, I love Spectre." "But it's only three lines long!" says Edward. "That's the reason you don't show your work to people," Buscemi says.

Danny DeVito also appears as the circus ringleader, and the most regretful scene in the film is that in which we see him naked from behind. I shudder at the thought. But, for what it's worth, DeVito's second re-teaming with Burton is magnificent--he's a supporting character, but the film certainly benefits from his performance.

Like all of Burton's films, "Big Fish" teeters on the edge of greatness, but it never quite crosses the line. This is a marvelous film, full of warmth, kind-hearted fables and beautiful cinematography, and it's one of the best films of the year. It's certainly a unique film experience unlike any you've ever had before. Unless, of course, you've seen "Edward Scissorhands" or "Ed Wood." Then some of it may look a bit familiar.

Still, I enjoyed it more than "The Lord of the Rings." And I could actually relate to this film.

Trivia note: "Edward Scissorhands" was a Tim Burton film. The main character of this film is named Edward. Sometimes when people pronounce his name with their thick Alabama accents it comes across as "Ed Wood." Mere coincidence or something more? We may never find out.

4.5/5 stars.

• John Ulmer

Tim Burton has moved us with Edward Scissorhands, to me his most brilliant original work..being that it was a screenplay by him and Caroline Thompson... but BIG FISH is by far his MASTERPIECE. Based on a amazing book, he connected with the material beautifully. The visuals, the acting, the craftsmanship in putting all this together in a very touching... tug at your heart strings... laugh out loud... Oscar worthy production was handled to perfection. How could you not like this film? I simply wouldn't understand it. Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Danny Devito all give A+ performances... Jessica being left out of most of the reviews I had to bring her in... not to be unnoticed are also a stellar performance by Billy Cruddup, Alison Lohman, and Helena Bohnam Carter. In fact I think every person in the film had one of their best performances. Just stellar all around. One whopper of a story that gets you pulled in and doesn't let you go till the ending credits! Big Fish will be in my movie library along with Edward Scissorhands and be a favorite in my heart, my 15 year old Daughters, my Wifes, and everyone I talk to about it. Great, great, did I say Great film Tim Burton... you definitely got your magic back!

My father was a brilliant sculptor and a great visionary. When I was a kid, I never could explain what he was doing. I got it a month before his death when i was 26. This film filled my eyes with tears, because it reminded me him. he had a lot of ideas and brilliant and original ideas for improving the world, but for all his life he could not sell it to anyone, because those ideas filled his whole day. Literally. His whole apartment was filled with papers. Thank you for this movie. Thank you for the message. I would add a note that when we dream, we are escaping from the world of facts and truths. When my father said that if you think of anything in life, you have to write it down because what comes to your mind it never comes again it changed my life. Now I'm writing a book - a novel from environment of Mesopotamia and that just because my father was someone who believed in imagination and creative values​​.