Big Fish - Burton's Fables

my rating: Nathan's rating:

Did I ever tell you about the time I rode a bicycle to Alaska? All the way from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Non-stop! It's quite the story.

OK, it was the town of Alaska, which is a good afternoon's ride, but still in the same county. But it's a far better story if I make it the state of Alaska, and if I were to stick to the actual facts, it'd be kinda dull. So would you rather I just told the real story?

Nathan and I spent the ride home after seeing Big Fish swapping stories like this. It was fun. Which is kinda he point Tim Burton seems to be making with his latest parable.

It's a story about a soon-to-be father (Billy Crudup) who's trying to sort out his relationship with his own father (Albert Finney), a larger-than-life character whose life story is an endless series of tall tales. The son, being a journalist, would kinda prefer the truth. The majority of the movie recounts these great adventures of Edward Bloom's charmed life, performed with great panache (and even a credible Southern-American accent) by Ewan McGregor.

The "Big Fish" of the title refers to the legendary big fish that features prominently in several of Edward's tales, the "fish story" aspect of those stories, and also his status for much of his young adulthood as a big fish in a small town/pond. Nice when a title works on several different levels.

The movie works on several levels as well, providing clever and engaging tales to keep the viewer entertained, a bit of satire of classic Americana (with Burton's trademark off-beat view of suburban/smalltown life in post-Word-War America), and finally concluding with a message that establishes the whole story as a parable, along the lines of Edward Scissorhands or James and the Giant Peach.

Especially compared to most of the post-holiday drek that's being released, it's well worth seeing.