Big Fish

2003 | USA | PG-13 | cinesia : 10

official site :

DIRECTOR : Tim Burton

CAST : Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, Danny DeVito, Marion Cotillard ...

WRITER : John August

PRODUCER : Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks

COMPOSER : Danny Elfman

STUDIO : Columbia Pictures

DISTRIBUTOR : Columbia TriStar

RUNTIME : 2 hours 5 minutes

LANGUAGE : English

GENRE : Drama / Fantasy / Comedy

USA

January 9, 2004

Switzerland

March 3, 2004

An adventure as big as life itself.

In the heartwarming film Big Fish, director Tim Burton (Batman, Edward Scissorhands) brings his inimitable imagination on a journey that delves deep into a fabled relationship between a father and his son. Edward Bloom (Albert Finney) has always been a teller of tall-tales about his oversized life as a young man (Ewan McGregor), when his wanderlust led him on an unlikely journey from a small-town in Alabama, around the world, and back again. His mythic exploits dart from the delightful to the delirious as he weaves epic tales about giants, blizzards, a witch and conjoined-twin lounge singers. With his larger-than-life stories, Bloom charms almost everyone he encounters except for his estranged son Will (Billy Crudup). When his mother Sandra (Jessica Lange) tries to reunite them, Will must learn how to separate fact from fiction as he comes to terms with his father's great feats and great failings.

At first, Big Fish was a Steven Spielberg project, until he decided to make Catch Me If You Can. So Daniel Wallace novel was given to Tim Burton.

The title of Wallace’s book, «Big Fish, a Story of Mythic Proportions», comes from a favourite expression of father. He explains: “All his life, he spoke of the fact that he left the small town in which he was born for the big city, because he didn’t want to be a big fish in a small pond.”

It’s to John August, the writer of Charlie's Angels : Full Throttle, that Big Fish script was given.

Fred's review

posted on
August 18, 2005

100% Burton

Why telling a story as it really was, whereas transforming it slightly so that it becomes more magic is so much better. This is in a way what this movie is communicating.
Giants, villages hidden in the woods, witches, legendary fish, all of the elements are gathered in this fairytale so typical of Tim Burton’s style. After the awful Planet of the Apes, the director is going back to his primary ideas. Indeed Big Fish is more in the category of his earlier films. Nothing like Mars Attack or Sleepy Hollow, we are here in the same vein than Edward Scissorhands. An overactive imagination, well chosen actors, a stirring narration accentuating the emotions, once completely into Tim Burton’s world, the happiness is at its height.

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Pascal's review

posted on
October 22, 2005

A big fish

I would like to say that this is a classic Tim Burton movie. Indeed, Big Fish is a following of short stories, at the edge between the real and the phantasmagoria, the whole thing incorporated in a coherent structure. We laugh a lot but the end is touching. The story itself is relatively usual but these added tales make the charm of the film. The consequence is that the result is odd (or eccentric), surprising. About the image, the special effects are successfully integrated and significantly contribute to the good accomplishment of the movie. The actors are admirable, especially Ewan McGregor who adds to it a lot also.
In a few words, a first class amusement and an outstanding cinematographic work, able to delight every public, whatever are its expectations about cinema, and particularly the fans of Tim Burton who won’t be disappointed.

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