Big Fish review

The story of a son desperate to reconcile with a dying father is a common one, but rarely has it been told with such vivid imagination, then again it's never been told by Tim Burton before. Big Fish sees the director of such illusory films as Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow try to balance his gift for fantasy with a more naturalistic approach. It's a challenge he pulls off in this wondrous and touching drama.

Burton brings a distinctive vision to his films, one steeped in an offbeat surrealism, making him the perfect choice for the screen adaptation of Daniel Wallace's novel Big Fish, A Story Of Mythic Proportions. The 'Story' belongs to Edward Bloom (played in his youth by Ewan McGregor and old age by Albert Finney), while the 'Mythic Proportions' refers to the incredible tales of his life that Edward is always regaling people with. To everyone but his son Will (Billy Crudup), these stories are entertaining, but with his own child on the way, Will is desperate to connect with his dying father before it's too late. "I have no idea who you are," declares Will, "You tell amusing lies." But Edward is less concerned with the truth than a good story.

Told in flashbacks, Big Fish cuts between the colourful adventures of the young Edward and the more somber last months of his life as he reminisces with his wife Sandra (Jessica Lange), Will and Will's wife (Marion Cotillard). Edward's fabled escapades begin when, growing up Ashton, Alabama, he reads about how a goldfish will grow according to the size of its bowl and determines Ashton to be "too small for a man of my ambition." Armed with the knowledge of his own death, as seen in the eye of a local witch (Helena Bonham Carter), he sets off on his travels accompanied by boundless enthusiasm, determination and Karl the giant (Matthew McGrory).

The witch and Karl are only two of many extraordinary characters he encounters. Others include a circus huckster (Danny DeVito), a spurious poet (Steve Buscemi) and conjoined Korean lounge singers Ping and Jing (Ada and Arlene Tai). It's Burton along with production designer Dennis Grassner and cinematographer Phillippe Rousselot who bring Edward's bizarre recollections to life so enchantingly.

The big fish, which is a recurring symbol, acting as a metaphor for Edward's life, also ties in by way of his stories that are like fisherman's tales. But though the size of the fish is open to question, its existence isn't. What Will discovers is that outlandish as his father's stories are, they retain a grain of truth, and from that seed acceptance grows.