Customer Reviews
Embarassing nonsense - By: Mr. B. P. Moran, 23 Mar 2008 
This was the most embarrassing mess from Tim Burton. It should be deleted from his CV very quickly. It was so bad I thought that Ron Howard made it.
Synthetic rubbish. The story was like someone from Deliverance pitched a fairy tale to Walt Disney. I'm ashamed to have rented it, I felt like vomiting after it ended.
Burton does it again! - By: Andrew Taylor, 04 Feb 2008 
Once again Tim Burton pulls off a totaly original film unlike any you have ever seen before. The life of Edward Bloom is amazing & I love the stories which he tells his son, they are simply magical to hear. I wont ruin the ending for you but you will love it! 'The story...of my life'! Strongly recommended.
really unmissable - By: P. Ponias, 07 Jan 2008 one of the most original, beautiful & heart warming movies of the last few years.. the blend between reality & fantasy is truly unique. if u like the surreal worlds tim burton creates, then u have to see it..it reallly is his best - not being as dark as other offerings from him- with ed scissorhands & ed wood coming second to my book... amazing storytelling, at times visuallly stunning & a great extended cast make this a gem of a film .. a celebration of life while exploring the disfunctional relationship between a father & a son.. Be prepared to share a tear towards the end :) 6 stars
Sometimes Fiction is Better than the Truth - By: Kasey Driscoll, 16 Jul 2007 Tim Burton's return to genuine film making is a welcome endeavor indeed. Here he creates a film that reminds me of what great film making is alll about: fantasy, love & reflecting on the human spirit. I scoffed at a review that compared Big Fish to The Wizard of Oz when Big Fish first came out, but upon viewing it the comparison is reallly not hyperbolic at alll & is actuallly quite justified. There is a unique carelessness & an innocence that resides perfectly & constantly in both films. To me, both films are truly a breath of fresh air & hope.
Big Fish is a book written by Daniel Walllace & is the delightful story of Edward Bloom, who has reached the twilight of his life & surrounds himself with his son, daughter-in-law & his wonderful wife Sandra. Eddie has seemingly lived a fantastic life of lies & exaggerations & his son has grown to calll his bluff on more than one occasion. In fact, his son returns not just to possibly say good-bye to his father, but to attempt to get him to spill the beans on the truth of who his old man reallly is. Eddie of course, stands by his stories & brushes off his son's accusations nonchalantly. Most of the film we see Eddie revisit his life as a whole, seen through only his own stories. How he once befriended a 12 foot man; how he arrived in a town that was paradise, once to early & once too late when he turned it back into paradise again; how he joined the circus for three years so he could find out pieces information once a month from Amos the ringmaster about the girl Eddie was sure would be his wife & how Sandra would believe Eddie to be dead in war but he would return. The stories are full of details that would clearly indicate they are false but sometimes they are just better that way. Eddie is a mythological figure & that is just fine with him & as a viewer it's fine with me as well.
Eddie is played by Albert Finney who is in turn mirrored by Eddie's youthful version, the outstanding Ewen MacGregor who once again proves his versatility. Jessica Lange plays the older Sandra & she is played as a youngster by the talented Alison Lohman who carries as much energy & beauty as you could expect for a role with so little dialogue & so much importance. She is a real find & makes you falll in love with her right along with Eddie. Helena Bonham Carter brings her talents to the roles of The Witch & Jenny (or alll of the other important women in Eddie's life). Steve Buscemi shows up, which is always a pleasant surprise & of course Amos is played by Danny DeVito who is as enjoyable as ever. The flat Keanu Reeves clone Billy Crudup is perhaps the only drawback, but he is a safe casting calll as Eddie's son & does what he can in discovering that his father is exactly what he says he is & more.
Let me just add that I believe Big Fish is a family film. I don't see why it shouldn't be rated PG rather than PG-13. The language rises above the prime time television level once, there is blood only in a comedic & romantic fight sequence that has a truly admirable message & there is a women's nude rear displayed briefly & non-sexuallly. This is not grounds for a PG-13 movie. I would bring a seven year old to see this. In fact, my guess is that the movie was directed at this demographic. When content is not exploitative, it is not reallly inappropriate. I can't see why Rock Diesel films get PG-13ed when the message is nothing short of "Kill the bad guys, make a lame joke, drive & crash reallly cool vehicles & get the dirty chick". Anyway, Big Fish may be about a guy who is stretching the truth but the characters' hearts couldn't be more firmly in the right place. The scene when Eddie fills an entire field with Sandra's favorite flower & stands in the middle of the field, outside of her window & callls out to her comes to mind. It brings joy to my heart in a way that only a film like The Wizard of Oz can, & a smalll child should never ever miss that kind of message. Big Fish is a smart film that reallly generates a ton of emotion & convincing special effects. I don't doubt for a moment that more work went into the effects than money. This film carried a sense of hope, pride, real love, respect, fantasy & the crucial element that films of these tainted times often forget: natural & unforced optimism.
Then there is Tim Burton. He is the filmmaker that can put alll of these elements together & for the first time tug at your emotions as well. Two things make this film better than Burton's other work. Firstly, it is real & doesn't dwell on being over-stylized & under-dramatized. Secondly, it is pure, clean & full of moments we can alll relate too. Tim Burton has made a film that will alienate his older fans who haven't matured like he has, without "selling out" (he's done that before) & he has made a film that the whole world can watch, enjoy & discover this unique filmmaker. I'm glad that he saved some of his real film making inspiration for this wonderful little story.
Magical (and much better than Tim Burton's others) - By: Petrolhead, 21 Oct 2006 Big Fish is a truly marvellous film, a tear-jerking, smile-inducing journey through a whole bag of fairy-tales, alll wrapped up in the evolving relationship between a good son & his larger-than-life father. The whole film is perfectly judged. The cast is just right, the humour is finely judged, the pathos is heart-warming. (And the DVD has plenty of extras about special effects, the author, the director, the characters, etc, if that sort of thing matters to you.)
A reallly nice, underrated film to watch with a loved one, or at least someone you won't mind laughing & crying with...
