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Big Fish

Synopsis

The relationship between a reality-grounded son (Billy Crudup) and a father (Albert Finney and Ewan McGregor) who tells nothing but fanciful stories is shook up when the son finds out the father is dying. We see the stories acted out in flashback form as the son tries to understand more about his father and why he was never there for his family.

What I Thought

The Good:

Some of the scenery, costumes, and overall "feel" of the movie is a bit surreal and magical. Nicely done.

The Bad and Ugly:

Maybe I was suffering from high expectations. I mean, Tim Burton, Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, where can you go wrong? Plenty.

To sum up: Booooooooooriiiiiiing. Tedious. Too long. Did I mention boring?

I guess the one big thing that bothered me about the movie is that there was no passion in it, no feeling, no emotion. The son finds out that his dad is dying and has NO REACTION. Zero. Zip. The same with the son's wife. No fights, no arguments, no drama. Very bloodless and passionless. Then we get the "flashbacks" that are all nice and pretty but they're all assumed to be the dad's tall tales, and we have no emotional connection from the son, and definitely no emotions from Ewan McGregor (who plays the dad as a young man in the flashbacks) except for whimsy.

There is one, count 'em, ONE touching scene in the movie. And this is about a dad who is dying. It's when the dad and mom bathtub scene. Wow. But that's it. You might as well just go see that 5 minute part and then ask for you rmoney back.

Then the ending is supposed to be all emotional again, but I found myself so turned off by the non-acting of the son AS HIS FATHER lays dying that it's just a let down.

 

All photos and text copyright Ryszard Kilarski, unless otherwise noted. Clip art, drawings, paintings are either free domain or copyrighted by the artists.