Cast:
Albert Finny as Edward Bloom
Jessica Lange as Sandra Bloom
Billy Crudup as Will Bloom
Marion Cotillard as Josephine Bloom
Helena Bonham Carter as Jenny
Hailey Anne Nelson as 8 years old Jenny
Robert Guillaume as Dr Bennett
Matthew McGrory as Karl the giant
Danny Devito as Amos Calloway
Steve Buscemi as Norther Winslow
Directed by: Tim Burton
What could be more interesting than watching an adventure like those ones in the stories your father used to read you before bed? Big Fish doesn’t only take you to these beloved times to everyone's heart when you were a kid listening to those tales, but it takes you to the fantasy world of the tales itself.
The movie is based on a novel entitled the same title ''Big Fish'' written by Daniele Wallace. It consists of two parallel lines. The first one starts with a father Edward Bloom (Albert Finny) narrating a bed time story to his son in which the father is always the hero. Years pass by and the son grows up listening to these tales about his father and suddenly he finds it very hard to separate reality from fiction, the man from the myth. He does not know who his father really is. So, he decides to have no connection with his father whatsoever. It doesn’t last for long, after three years he goes back with his wife to his father's house because the father is dying and that's when the second line of the story begins, the exaggerated life story of young Edward Bloom (Ewan McGregor). It's more like a fairy tale, a story within the real story of the movie in which Ewan McGregor amuses us with his skillful performance and is able to draw our attention from the very first minute of his appearance to the last one. It starts with Edward Bloom volunteering to save his town from a giant man threatening it. Being a convincing charming man as he is Edward manages to convince the giant man Karl (late Mathew McGrory) to leave the town with him and seizes the chance to leave his town which is to him small for his ambitions.
Edward's first stop is an imaginary utopia like town where no one actually leaves. Here and despite the fact that the movie is full of lovely portraits, the setting was not distinguishing but the musing story behind Spectra and the dazzling performance of the town's people specially Jenny (8 years old Hailey Anne Nelson) and Norther Winslow (steve Buscemi) -a poet who reached Spectra 12 years ago and never dared to leave- work together with the other characters -who proved that there is no one character in the movie that is misplaced- and are able to draw a picture of this perfect town with the too sweet to be believed townspeople. The story goes on and Ed. being extraordinary like he describes himself dares to leave the town on his pursuit of ambition. Then, the movie takes us to another well arranged setting rich with colors and imaginary characters as if it is taken from a children's book (the circus). We also move to another remarkable performance by Danny Devito as (Amos Calloway) a fictional character and an owner of the circus where Ed. Bloom works in exchange of one piece of information every month about a girl he saw once and decided that she is the one. Here the story takes a romance turn and it just does not stop there. The movie keeps taking us from one place to another from a college campus full of yellow daffodils the favorite flower of Ed.'s beloved to the Vietnamese war with Elves Bresly singing in the background to western Texas in the year 1905. Moving from one part of the story to another was done professionally by making each setting individual and unique which makes the setting another hero with satisfying performance beside Ewan McGregor's. Of course, the movie keeps taking us back or if we may say forward to dying Edward Bloom (senior) shedding light on the father-son relationship between him and his son. So, we can say that it's not just a light adventure movie but a movie that deals with the special bond between a father and his son. How far should the father go with telling his son fictional stories and when should he start telling him the truth about the world. It also does not cancel the son's point of view which is the fact that a son would like to know some true stuff about his father -his idol- in order to be able to say proudly this is my father. So we see Will Bloom (Billy Crudup) following the leads in order to get the true version of things. The movie ends with a surprising ending that makes it a perfect masterpiece.
You can say that it is a movie that can draw your smile without telling one single joke. A movie in which the director was able to make use of all the potentials he could get. So, we see that the simple well made costumes of each stop of Edward's fiction story are very expressive and separate every place from the other by giving it a unique remark. Also the special effects create a mood that moves freely from a sad mood to a happy one to a challenging one not to mention the facial expressions of the actors themselves. In addition, the narration is so warm and brings back sweet memories whether it is the voice of Albert Finny or Ewan McGregor or even Helena Bonham Carter (as Jenny). All in all it is a family movie that is worthy of the two hours you and your family are going to spend on it.
