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"And you become what you were always meant to be — a big fish."

2003 PG-13 / Fantasy Drama Directed by: Tim Burton Starring: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup

Tagline

An adventure as big as life itself.

Summary Capsule

A grown son tries to sort out his father's fables before it's too late.

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DVD | Soundtrack (Score)

PoolMan's Rating: This is one tall tale.
PoolMan's Review: I enjoy a pretty good relationship with my dad, all things said and done. He and I can always talk, and he's a pretty naturally funny guy, so he's usually good for a laugh. One story about him I love to share is that I remember once, at about age six, I wandered out of bed on Christmas Eve, just after he'd finished setting up the living room. He immediately regaled me with an on-the-spot story about how I'd JUST missed Santa, and how they had shared a drink and had a chat about me and my brothers. He went into details about what they'd discussed, and was so utterly convincing in his story that I believed in Santa anew, and continued to do so for probably a lot longer than my friends. After all, MY dad had met him!

"I have to tell you, saying that this movie is 'emotional' is like saying Kyle is 'single'."

Big Fish is all about one father, Ed (Albert Finney), who spends his entire life telling stories like that, not to be mean or manipulative, but simply to present his own vision of his life to others, particularly his son, Will. Ed's life is a collage of bigger than life stories, each with its own magical properties and impossibilities. Of course, as a boy, Will (Billy Crudup) ate these stories up, but as a grown man he's grown sick of it all. He sees his father's way of dealing with life as a neverending, self-indulgent lie. But with death by cancer looming for Ed, Will comes home from France with his wife, Josephine, to make one final try at getting his father to tell him his life's story as it really was.

I have to tell you, saying that this movie is "emotional" is like saying Kyle is "single". Your heart gets tugged in every direction as we get to see some of the many fables that make up the history of Ed's life. Nearing the end of his life in the present time, Ed's young self is played by a shiny-eyed Ewan McGregor, in a role that's sure to install him permanently into many new hearts. Ed routinely places himself in the role of the clever young lad that solves the puzzles or does the impossible, such that he's the star of his own life's story, just as he should be. Young Ed meets giants, finds mystically hidden towns where no one wears shoes, confronts a witch, robs a bank, and catches the biggest fish you've never heard of. It's all beautifully sewn together in a weave of reality and fantasy that makes it really hard to distinguish what's real and what isn't, particularly as a disgusted Will eventually starts to find bits of evidence that there's truth in his father's tales after all.

The stories that are told are each unto themselves and at the same time part of the larger structure of the movie, such that it's almost pointless trying to separate them. There are some familiar faces along for the ride, though, as we see Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Buscemi, Robert Guillaume, and a very naked Danny DeVito (but don't let that discourage you!). Yet despite such a strong cast, it's all about father and son and their battle of wills. Crudup and Finney are great opposite one another, and McGregor is just great fun to watch in the past. This is particularly true because despite seeming so earnest and real, it's all so unlikely and filled with odd details, just like someone telling a story (for example, Ed's translation book in the war is entitled "English to Asian", instead of "English to Japanese").

Saying much at all about the ending would just be criminal, because it's the key to the movie. If the last ten minutes of this movie don't move you, I doubt any film ever will. It's extremely powerful, and it's as simple as that.

Big Fish may very well go on to be the signature piece of Tim Burton's career, and deservedly so. Even though it lacks Burton's usual macabre styling, it's unmistakeably of the same creative engine as Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice, while at the same time of a far deeper meaning than probably anything else he's ever done. Just like my dad and his Santa story, it's all about two completely different ways of describing the same event, and how they're intricately bound to each other as halves of the truth. It is simple, it is touching, and it is just plain great.

Next on Martha Stewart, how to conserve bath water! Pictured: Young Ed. Not pictured: The Shriners all running him over. At last, a shoe store just for PoolMan!

Didja Notice? [some sources: IMDb]

• Ewan McGregor should look at doing a 70's crime drama!
• Ed's constant desire to drink water?
• Young Ed brusing the popcorn out of the air at the frozen-in-time circus.
• Boy, them floods is HUGE in Alabama!
• The breakfast machine that Young Ed Bloom shows off at the science fair is the same machine used in Pee-wee's Big Adventure, the first film directed by Tim Burton.
• Young Edward Bloom is seen wearing a tie featuring the spiral hill of The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Young Edward becomes a traveling salesman for a company that sells hands with metal tools as fingers, all held together by a plastic base - a reference to Edward Scissorhands
• In the middle of the lettered board in the bank that Norther Winslow robs reads "ROMANS 12:1-2." This refers to the passages in the Bible that says, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will."

Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?

Magic 8 Ball says... "Details Are Fuzzy, Ask Again Later".

Unnecessary Background [some sources: Tall Tales ]

A tall tale is a story that has these features: a larger-than-life, or superhuman, main character with a specific job; a problem that is solved in a funny way; exaggerated details that describe things as greater than they really are; and characters who use everyday language.

Tall tales were huge in the newly settled America, where settlers who made their homes in the American wilderness first told tall tales. In those days, before TV and movies, people depended on storytelling for entertainment. After a long day's work, people gathered to tell each other funny tales. Each group of workers-loggers, cowboys, railroad and steel workers-had its own tall-tale hero. Some well-known tall tales include Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, Pecos Bill, and John Henry.

Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]

Ewan McGregor was cast for his striking resemblance to a young Albert Finney.

Groovy Quotes

Young Ed: Truth is, I've always been thirsty.

Young Ed: There are some fish that can't be caught. It's not that they're bigger or faster than other fish, they're just touched by something extra.

Young Ed: I can't go back, I'm a human sacrifice!

Josephine: I'd like to take your picture.
Senior Ed: Oh, you don't need a picture. Just look up "handsome" in the dictionary.

Senior Ed: You know how they say that time stops when you meet your true love? Well, that's true. What they don't tell you is that when it starts up again it goes extra fast to catch up.

Senior Ed: Sometimes the only way to catch an uncatchable woman is to offer her a wedding ring.

Senior Ed: Exactly.

The Witch: Some fish can't be caught.

Will Bloom: And you become what you were always meant to be - a big fish.

If you liked this movie, try these:

• Edward Scissorhands
• Beetlejuice
• Sleepy Hollow
• Ed Wood