Silly Thinking

And now today's "Jim's Movielog" review by Jim Farris:

“Big Fish” is sort of a magical epic of tall fables and a real life family. It has an excellent cast including Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Billy Crudup, Ewan Mcgregor, and Steve Buscemi. It’s directed by a man who has made remarkable fantasy’s like “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure”, “Edward Scissorhands”, and the original “Batman” Tim Burton.

“Big Fish” boasts a lush fantasy production style and is based on a popular best selling novel. It has gotten mixed but generally favorable reviews. Reviewers who like the film have called it a classic and “Tim Burton’s” best film!
In short it has everything going for it. And so the lights went down in the big shiney multiplex and... it laid there.
"Big Fish" refused to entertain for two hours.

Why and how is this possible?
It’s a tricky movie to take apart and analyze. The story follows multi tracks as a real life father and son explore thier relationship near the end of the father's life. The Father is played with impeccable perfection by Albert Finney and Ewan Mcgregor (in flashbacks) and the son is played by one of the best actors around doing one of his best performances, Billy Crudup.
Dad tells tall tales and the son is frustrated that he doesn’t know his father as a real person. The son begins to take the stories apart and seek out real answers.
This real life real time story is the best the film offers, with a strong rich turn by Jessica Lange as the mother; but when it jolts into a fable the moviemakers made a mistake by distancing you from the reality of the fantasy (if you will) by telling you it’s not real. That dad is lying.

Now All stories and films set boundaries and rules in which you must proceed. Hitchcock films are a good example. In Hitchcock you never go where a human can’t. The Camera never hides in a safe for an example because the viewer can’t fit in a small box.
In this film you are transported to magical places that are labeled phony by the filmmakers. So you are always at an arms distance from really being there and enjoying the story. How awful would "The Wizard Of Oz" have been if they cut back to Dorothy laid out in bed knocked cold?

Also in fantasy it is imperative to follow the rules of existence that you prescribe. I.E. If a scarecrow can talk he can't suddenly not talk for the convience of the script. If a skeleton has human characteristics they suddenly can’t disappear. In “Big Fish” Burton breaks his own rules of reality within the fantasy on a few glaring occasions.
It is a huge mistake to do this because it occurs to you as your driving home and “Wait a minute if this happened how come that happened” conversations start and the word of mouth turns more and more confused and sour as the viewer drives home, and you the film maker risk loosing a future audience. Word of mouth can make or break quirky fantasies as it can other genres like romance and comedy.
I’m afraid it breaks this one.

At the end there is "a big suprise" that was not suprising at all. Burton had telegraphed this shocker since the opening credits.

The worst thing you can say about "Big Fish" is it does not linger in the mind. A few hours later it was gone.

What I remembered is this: For a film that supposedly is rich in human warmth this movie is strangely cold at it’s heart and that is the biggest surprise of all.