Big Fish (2003) – Nostalgia Central

Skillfully adapted by John August from a 1998 novel by Daniel Wallace, Big Fish brims with storytelling sorcery, and director Tim Burton makes it glitter.

It’s the tale of a man who makes up his life as he goes along and finds a deeper truth in fantasy. That man is Edward Bloom, a salesman played with comic bravado by Albert Finney in a touching, towering performance made more extraordinary because almost all of his scenes are in bed.

Ed is dying, and his wife, Sandra (Jessica Lange), has called their son, Will (a sharply implosive Billy Crudup), home to Ashton, Alabama, to reconcile with the father he hasn’t spoken to for years.

Will, a journalist who has made his career by serving facts straight, hates his father for constructing myths to hide behind. It’s the myths, of course, that most reveal the real Ed, and Burton wisely builds his movie around them.

Ewan McGregor, freed from his Star Wars straitjacket, steps in to play the young Edward, and the tall tales begin.

McGregor, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Finney in his Tom Jones days, is wonderfully engaging.

Finding Ashton too small a pond for the big fish he longs to be, Edward Bloom sets out for a wider world, where he meets a witch, a giant, a naked babe who saves him from drowning and the freaks in a circus run by a ringmaster (Danny DeVito) who’s part werewolf.

A stop in Spectre, a shadow version of Ashton populated by happy, barefoot failures such as poet Norther Winslow (the great Steve Buscemi), almost traps Ed in complacency. But soon he’s off, courting Sandra (lovely Alison Lohman) in college; parachuting into Korea (where he discovers a conjoined-sister singing act); saving a bankrupt town; and meeting a stranger (a striking Helena Bonham Carter) who may not be a stranger at all.

All the actors are exceptional, searching their characters for the hurt that needs healing. Lange pierces the heart as Sandra climbs into the tub with Ed to offer comfort and forgiveness.

In less capable hands, Big Fish could play like a tribute to a liar’s pathology. Or, worse, Edward could be a holy fool, like Forrest Gump. He isn’t.

In trying to reshape the world around his fantasy, Edward wants to right the world’s wrongs and his own. That he can’t is his tragedy.

The tension inherent in this fable of a father with his head in the clouds and a son with his feet on the ground brings out a bracing maturity in Burton and gives the film its haunting gravity.

As the son learns to talk to his father on the father’s terms and still see him clearly, Big Fish takes on the transformative power of art.

Ed Bloom (young)
Ewan McGregor
Ed Bloom (senior)
Albert Finney
Will Bloom
Billy Crudup
Sandra Bloom (senior)
Jessica Lange
Jenny/The Witch
Helena Bonham Carter
Sandra Bloom (young)
Alison Lohman
Dr Bennett (senior)
Robert Guillaume
Josephine
Marion Cotillard
Karl the Giant
Matthew McGrory
Don Price (age 18-22)
David Denman
Mildred
Missi Pyle
Beamen
Loudon Wainwright
Ping
Ada Tai
Jing
Arlene Tai
Norther Winslow
Steve Buscemi
Amos Calloway
Danny DeVito
Mr Soggybottom
Deep Roy
Ed Bloom (age 10)
Perry Walston
Jenny (age 8)
Hailey Anne Nelson
Will Bloom (age 6-8)
Grayson Stone
Ed’s Father
R. Keith Harris
Ed’s Mother
Karla Droege
Zacky Price (age 10)
Zac Gardner
Don Price (age 12)
John Lowell
Wilbur (age 10)
Darrell Vanterpool
Ruthie (age 8)
Miley Cyrus
Little Brave
Joseph Humphrey
Will’s Date
Morgan Grace Jarrett
Colossus
George McArthur
Will’s Son
Trevor Gagnon
Dr Bennett (young)
Karlos Walkes
Lobster Woman
Cathy Berry
Old Zacky
Jake Brake
River Woman
Bevin Kaye

Director
Tim Burton

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