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Big Fish

Big Fish (2004)

tomatometer

76

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 212
Fresh: 162 | Rotten: 50

A charming father-and-son tale filled with typical Tim Burton flourishes.

61

Average Rating: 6.4/10
Critic Reviews: 41
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 16

A charming father-and-son tale filled with typical Tim Burton flourishes.

audience

86

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 456,867

My Rating

Movie Info

Tim Burton directs the fantasy drama Big Fish, based on the book Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions by Southern writer/illustrator Daniel Wallace. Billy Crudup plays William Bloom, a young man who never really knew his dying father, Edward (Albert Finney) outside of the tall tales he told about growing up, making his way, and meeting his mother (played as a young woman by Alison Lohman and in older age by Jessica Lange). During Edward's last days, William and his wife Josephine (Marion

PG-13, 2 hr. 5 min.

Drama, Comedy

John August

Apr 27, 2004

$66.3M

Sony Pictures

Big Fish Trailer & Photos

More Photos (48)
More Trailers and Videos (8)

Cast

Critic Reviews for Big Fish

All Critics (213) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (173) | Rotten (51) | DVD (45)

Overall, the film feels like it issues from a place Burton doesn't inhabit.

August 7, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Magazine | Comment
Peter Rainer
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Burton shows the rivalry between father and son but not the rancor, which seems to fit with the film's calm lyricism. But the father-son conflict is meant as the dramatic crux, and a forceful actor would have given it some much-needed bite.

March 16, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A compelling look at the relationships between fathers and sons, and the child coming to terms with the parent's mortality.

January 8, 2004 Full Review Source: CNN.com | Comment
(CNN.com) Paul Clinton
CNN.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A long-winded indulgence in tear-and-a-smile whimsy.

December 26, 2003 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A disappointingly dull thud of a fantasy.

December 26, 2003 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Somewhat like Forrest Gump on a high colonic.

December 26, 2003 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Stephen Hunter
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Delightful, sad father-son story for teens and up.

December 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Nell Minow
Common Sense Media

Reliant more on powerful familial emotions than wacky splendor, "Big Fish" treads as close to our real world as Tim Burton ever could - a melancholy dissection of paternal distance and never truly knowing how many lives those we love can truly affect.

September 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Suite101.com | Comment
Nick Rogers
Suite101.com

Burton, favoring form over content, flavor over fact, has been often criticized for not knowing how to bring his work to satisfactory resolution. But I'd call that a good thing. Blame it on his dad.

August 21, 2009 Full Review Source: City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul | Comment
Rob Nelson
City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul Source: City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul

Burton invokes the imagination from his crowd and succeeds in making us gasp in wonder.

April 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | Comment (1)
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Cinema Crazed

Never has going fishing or getting caught been such a treat.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile

For all the story's twists, there are no real surprises (the ending is obvious 10 minutes in), and Burton's flourishes of self-satisfied frippery annoy as much as they amuse.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | Comment
Jim Lane
Sacramento News & Review

Unfortunately, up until the end, the tall tales are far more interesting than reality.

December 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | Comments (5)
Joe Lozito
Big Picture Big Sound

I enjoyed Big Fish more than any film Burton has been involved with since maybe Nightmare Before Christmas.

July 23, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

The film doesn't so much reject history as selectively rewrite it to its own reactionary, even offensive ends. This might perhaps be just about tolerable were the film funny, illuminating, insightful or moving. It is not.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment
Geoff Andrew
Time Out Source: Time Out

Burton's masterfully rendered, deeply felt Big Fish is his most emotionally resonant work...

November 28, 2005 Full Review Source: Now Playing Magazine | Comment
Brent Simon
Now Playing Magazine Source: Now Playing Magazine

Plays to Burton's strengths as an auteur of fantasy colliding with reality.

November 11, 2005 Full Review Source: Bangor Daily News (Maine) | Comment
Christopher Smith
Bangor Daily News (Maine)

An ebullient tall tale about the magic of imagination and the power of myth.

May 3, 2005 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | Comment
Nick Schager
Lessons of Darkness
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Big Fish

View All

A continuously surprising journey, highly re-watchable, and one of the best endings I've ever seen. May be Burton's best.

April 16, 2007
danperry17
Daniel Perry

Super Reviewer

BIG FISH is bizarre, but there's Tim Burton for you. A unique fantasy-drama, it questions life and death with the usual, odd spin created by Burton; and without all the flummoxing B.S. that kept THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON from earning its Oscar for Best Picture.The one amusing thing about this film is that

July 19, 2011
spielberg00
Alexander Diminiano

Super Reviewer

Big Fish Quotes

View All

    1. Ed Bloom (Young): They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops, and that's true. What they don't tell you is that when it starts again, it moves extra fast to catch up.
    – Submitted by Enrica C (17 days ago)
    1. Edward Bloom (senior): Fate has a cruel way to play with us, there is a time when a man must fight. And a moment when you must accept that he lost his destiny, which sailed the boat and that only a fool would ... Actually I've always been a fool.
    – Submitted by Rodrigo R (24 days ago)
    1. Edward Bloom (senior): [quoting his mother] The milkman dropped dead on our front porch. See, if my momma was bangin' the milkman.
    – Submitted by Alyssa B (42 days ago)
    1. Little Girl: He ate mah dawg.
    – Submitted by Alyssa B (5 months ago)
    1. Ping: Who are you?
    2. Ed Bloom (Young): [In Cantonese] Please, I'm not going to hurt you.
    3. Ping: [In Cantonese] Damn right you're not! GUARD!
    – Submitted by Alyssa B (5 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Der Zauber, der ein Leben zur Legende macht (DE)
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