Reviewed by: Joe

Directed by: Tim Burton

Produced by: Richard D Zanuck, Dan Jinks, & Bruce Cohen

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, & Danny DeVito

Released: December 10th, 2003

Drama and Comedy 2 hrs. 05 min. 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, 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.

Big Fish manages to swim above its own high-watered ambition despite a flop or two too close to shore. Going into this film, one has to understand this: almost everything in the individual tales is a metaphor for something else. The conjoined Japanese twins, for example, aren’t actually conjoined in real life but they are so connected to each other, despite their own personal differences, that it seems that way. Many of exaggerations within the film are marvelously well played out but there are moments where you’ll be questioning what the filmmakers are trying to do. The most prominent moment(s) involves the naked woman in the river that the young Edward Bloom sees outside his car that has been submerged by a great rainstorm. Of all the other fantasy sequences, this is the one that made the least amount of sense and probably wasn’t necessary.

Even with a pretty well balanced two hour time length, Big Fish fluxes between consistency and incoherence with some tales struggling to keep the pace more then others. Outside of those issues, Fish is a wonderful surprise from the man who has brought us dark classics such as Batman and Beetlejuice. It manages to be funny and heartwarming without losing its message in its own sea of ambition.