Lacks credibility by pushing the delusory envelope.
Big Fish (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:203
Fresh:156
Rotten:47
Average Rating:7.2/10
Consensus: A charming father-and-son tale filled with typical Tim Burton flourishes.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for a fight scene, some images of nudity and a suggestive reference
Runtime: 2 hrs 5 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Dec 10, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $66,257,002
Synopsis: 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... 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. [More]
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman, Helena Bonham-Carter, Robert Guillaume, Steve Buscemi, Danny DeVito, Marion Cotillard, Matthew McGrory, Loudon Wainwright
Director: Tim Burton
Director: Tim Burton
Screenwriter: John August
Producer: Richard D. Zanuck, Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks
Composer: Danny Elfman
Studio: Columbia Pictures
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Reviews for Big Fish
The high-sheen adaptation of the novel by Daniel Wallace, however choppy, delivers a lovely payoff.
An original story and high production values, courtesy of one of cinema's most original directors and his team, make Tim Burton's Big Fish a good catch.
Burton has found a story written by someone else that meshes with his own imagination as well as anything he's ever written himself.
A load of tripe that no attempt on my part could make sound half as pretentious and conceited as it really is.
Burton spices up the story with touches of his trademarked surrealism, but they're swamped by the trickiness and sentimentality of John August's screenplay, based on Daniel Wallace's novel.
Proving that he is indeed the right man to remake Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, director Tim Burton envisions a world of pure imagination.
The whole seems disjointed, incoherent and lacking in the startling originality of the other two Edwards (Scissorhands and Wood) who, half a career back, poured from Burton's distended outsider imagination.
You'd think that Burton, whose movies can be so invigoratingly nasty or so hypnotically moody, would be able to pull off a gentle, mainstream crowd-pleaser without making it dull or preachy. But Big Fish is both.
Big Fish takes a while to get its bearings, but it gets better and better.
A change-up delivery from a director seeking relief from his artful image, the movie wants to catch our ears rather than our eyes, and it does so without completely reeling us in.
Big Fish flounders largely because Burton leaves out the meaning of the story, which was about the seductive power of fiction. In offering no meaning besides pictures, Big Fish has no power at all.
The most curious thing about this magical-realist fable ... is how thin and soft it is, how unpersuasive and ultimately forgettable even its most strenuous inventions turn out to be.
There are quirks aplenty in Big Fish, but spirited performances from a talented cast, led by a standout Finney as the slippery-fish raconteur, help domesticate the wall-to-wall weirdness.
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