Details
Movie Description
In Tim Burton's family film BIG FISH, a gifted storyteller named Edward Bloom (Albert Finney), who lives in a small town in Alabama, recounts tall tales of his wild worldly adventures. These are shown in flashback with Ewan McGregor playing the young Bloom. Wonderful special effects and vibrant colors that pop off the screen make this Burton film a much sunnier experience than his macabre gems EDWARD SCISSORHANDS and BEETLEJUICE. Yet his signature quirky artistry is unmistakable, and the movie benefits from crisp production values and a loveable, bizarre cast of characters.
Told through a series of vignettes, Bloom's stories involve a witch, a giant, a haunted forest, and yes, a big fish. A self-described small-town hero, Bloom explains how he left home at 18 determined to experience anything and everything life could dish out. He worked for the circus, took on daring assignments as a WWII soldier, and rambled across the country as a zany traveling salesman. Utterly unbelievable yet magical and delightful, Bloom's stories just don't translate to his son Will (Billy Crudup) who wants to know his dad's "true" life story. But little by little--through increasingly outlandish tales at which Will cannot resist smirking--the two begin to understand each other, and Bloom weaves his stories into their genealogical fabric.
Industry Reviews
"...[BIG FISH] brims with storytelling sorcery and Burton makes it glitter....[A] marvel of a movie..."
Rolling Stone - Peter Travers (12/11/2003)
"...BIG FISH turns into a wide-eyed Southern gothic picaresque in which each lunatic twist of a development is more enchanting than the last..."
Entertainment Weekly - Owen Glieberman (12/12/2003)
"[Burton] is surely one of the most prodigiously imaginative filmmakers around....There are, true to form, some startling scenes in his new movie, BIG FISH."
New York Times - A. O. Scott (12/10/2003)
"Burton cranks up the visual comedy of the character's self-mythology and lets it rip, sometimes to joyously dizzy effect."
Los Angeles Times - Manohla Dargis (12/10/2003)
"[T]he movie gets better as it goes, as Steve Buscemi and Helena Bonham Carter show up and the story works its way to a finale that can make grown men sniffle."
USA Today - Mike Clark (01/13/2004)
"[A] great-looking film, with a fantastical visual style that could be called Felliniesque if Burton had not by now earned the right to the adjective Burtonesque."
Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert (12/24/2003)
"The father-son confrontations are tart..."
Movieline - Stephen Farber (02/01/2004)
"[W]e get a rare Burton fantasia that evokes other American magic voyages."
Sight and Sound - Kim Newman (02/01/2004)
"This one proves Tim Burton's an absolute master."
Uncut - Chris Roberts (07/01/2004)
4 stars out of 5 -- "BIG FISH is a work in pictures -- and what dazzling pictures they are -- infused with a great big heart."
Ultimate DVD - David Richardson (05/01/2007)
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