Big Fish: Big Film

Tim Burton's 2003 film, Big Fish, is a touching story of acceptance, imagination and the power of storytelling. The film is rich in fantastic images, meaningful symbols, impossible adventure and larger-than-life characters. Thrown into the mix is a very realistic portrait of the modern family.

Will Bloom (Billy Crudup), a newspaper journalist, sees his father as a stranger and an entertainer rather than a father figure. Edward Bloom (elder, played by Albert Finney) on the other hand, sees his exaggerated stories as a way of pulling people into his life experiences, the only way he can. We enter the story as Will gets a phone call from his mother Sandra (Jessica Lange), saying his father's health was declining; Edward Bloom was dying. Though fed up with his father's many tall tales and unbelievable stories, Will returns home to try to mend their relationship before things are too late. During the flight with his wife, Joséphine, Will recalls his father's story of trekking through a swamp to get a sight of a witch with a mysterious glass eye. And so, the imaginative story of Edward Bloom's life unfolds.

The story is told through a series of flashbacks, narrated by Ed Bloom (Ewan MacGregor) as he repeats his many stories to Joséphine. Will had never told her these things, seeing them as complete fiction. Though a flashback-narration style plot seems as if it would be too disjointed and abrupt to really dig into, this film pulls off the technique perfectly. With narration that tugs you right inside the story being told, it's difficult to stop and make yourself consider the utter impossibility of the events.

The film shows only the key moments in Edward's life, leaving a great amount of space to insert noticeable symbols and motifs that may have been less effective at a slower pace. Recurring often is the image of water, representing life and the passage of time, as well as effectively eroding the past away, as is the case with Edward's late return to the eerily perfect village of Spectre. All the settings in the film, but most specifically Spectre, have an incredible atmospheric presence, created by an expert blend of colour tones and an original film score perfect for each scene (written by Danny Elfman). The colours and tones vary drastically from one location to the next: Spectre's saturated greens and orange-yellows contrast heavily with the flashy-yet-muted reds and browns of Mr. Calloway's circus. These minor details, with the friendly and comfortable narration of Ed Bloom, make the various stories fantastical yet all the more real for it.

Edward, "a big fish in a small pond", often blurs the line between reality and fiction, and we are left guessing which aspects of Edward's life actually happened. Similarly, he is trying to show Will that, though what he tells him are stories, more truth about himself is revealed than if he were to tell him solid facts.

Through the way that Edward tells his stories, and through the things present-- or otherwise-- it is easy to tell what kind of person he is. One example is the story he tells at Will's wedding, of the “uncatchable” fish that he caught the day Will was born. According to the doctor, on the day of Will's birth, Ed was actually away on business. By replacing this fact with a different event, Edward makes the point that, though he was absent, the day was still incredibly important in his life. It is only in the end, when Will tells the story of how his father saw his death in the witch's eye, does he realize that it was only through telling stories that Edward could reveal truths about himself.

By combining spectacular cinematography, an incredible original score and a crowd of extremely lovable characters-- including, but not limited to, a werewolf, a giant and Siamese twins-- Tim Burton's Big Fish expands from just the story of one man's life to an extremely moving series of adventures. The procession of experiences is reminiscent of Forrest Gump, while the narration reminds of that of The Princess Bride, but the result is something completely original. This film is highly recommended to any person who is always up for a story: as long as you know, it's a tall tale.