BIG FISH IS A BOTTOM FEEDER
I am an avid Tim Burton fan. Always have been. And I was even able to overlook the over-Hollywoodized crap load of a few years ago called "Plant of the Apes". But I can't overlook this one. Tim, you're a creative GENIUS. So what in God's name were you thinking when you made "Big Fish"? This movie, albeit enjoyable and somewhat charming, is lacklustre and devoid of all the great things that make a movie a Tim Burton movie. The acting is great, I think Ewan McGregor was fantastic, and Jessica Lange is always great. But this could have been pushed so much farther visually, it could have had fantastical imagery out the ass, but instead it's nothing more than a few fantastical images in the surrounds of everyday 21st century homes and towns. We see ALL the fantastical images in the trailer, which is a letdown.
I have decided that Burton was pulling from three movies, possibly more, but these three being the most obvious... The first is Tod Browning's classic "Freaks," which doesn't necessarily glorify, but rather makes a spectacle of the already gawked-at-for-money unfortunate few who, because they are not accepted in normal society due to physical ailments, deformities and talents, are forced into a life of torturous side-show freakhood. Burton's freaks have enough personality to make us feel sorry for them, to make us want to befriend them, but it still seems like he is just throwing them in the movie for spectacle. Since when does Tim Burton have to turn to siamese twins and 8 foot tall misproportioned people to get attention? He doesn't and should never have to.
The next obvious movie he's pulling from is "O Brother Where Art Though", the Cohen brothers masterpiece. Hey Tim -- you could have at least waited until a decade had passed before you ripped this one off! The similarities are obvious -- the town of spectre, the people, the costumes, the dialect -- and even going down to the river, where beautiful women are there to lullaby you, and where you go to get salvation. We see both of these images in "Big Fish".
The last and probably most obvious connection is between "The Wizard of Oz" and "Big Fish." There's the full screen shot of flowers (this time daffodils, not poppies.) There's the main charcter and a new freakish friend walking down paths, having to choose which one to take (this time the giant and Edward Bloom instead of the scarecrow and Dorothy -- I half expected to see the giant and Bloom go skipping down the road as the townspeople waved goodbye as they saw them on their way. The only thing missing was a dog.) There's the haunted woods, with a close-up of a crow on the tree limb like the close-up of the owls in W-of-Oz. The haunted woods even had a tattered old sign like Dorothy and friends found on the way to the witch's castle. Of course there's a witch in Big Fish. And Then the most blatant of all, the sky-writing airplane in stead of the witch's broomstick saying "Surrender Dorothy."
I could probably go on and on, like how the opening sequence and the gold ring is like an advertisement for Lord of the Rings... Why, oh why does such a master of imagination resort to such blatant and unnecessary ripping off? At least the movies he rips off are all classics, some of my favorites. Yet, all of the aforementioned movies had amazing visuals AND plots -- Big Fish has neither. I can respect artistic freedom, and with that comes the freedom to change aesthetic choices. Maybe Burton just wants to fit in. Maybe he wants to be one of the "cool kid" Hollywood directors instead of the outcast. Maybe he's just having a mid life crisis and will go back to his old tried and true style. And Tim -- even if you don't go back to your old style, puhLEAZE pick scripts with cohesive PLOTS from now on.
On the upside, I must say that, even though Burton's cast of usual suspects isn't there (Catherine O'Hara, Winona Ryder, Paul Reubens, Johnny Depp, etc...) this cast is excellent. And the physical likeness of the actress that played the young Jessica Lange and the real Jessica Lange is absolutely uncanny. This is a good movie, a great movie for children. But just don't be expecting the usual Burton fare.
