"Big Fish" (2003) - Movie Review

When we encounter an interesting event, even though as a first person experience we had all the details and juice to it, transferring it to other people does not carry the same content and substance. Edward Bloom as an old guy (Albert Finney) and as a young aspirant one (Ewan McGregor) has the ability and flair to recreate it, but with his own alteration from the real happenings. This is very interesting for his kid when he was a kid but not any more. Will (Billy Crudup) has heard the same story a thousand times and that bed time entertainment seems to bother and embarrass him as a young man. He thinks he got himself lost in the stories of his father at his very own wedding. This puts sour taste in his mouth and only returns to see his dying father after three years.

This adventurous film of fantasy and colourful spectacle spit out all the celebration and fairy tales possible in its 125 minutes. All the fathers try to impress their kid. They want them believe that they are their son’s hero. And indeed they are. Some of them keep them as lifelong while some names it as reality and with the same respect they go with the version of reality. Most of them will yet remember the colourful animated story said by them. For Will he has dried up in the repetitive centralized Edward in each and every story he said. He wants to know the real dad of his. Edward as such is a man of adventure and a new experience every now and then. He is shown as that when he passes on the heavenly town of Spectre. While he admits that this is the best any one could ask for, world is more than that. Experiencing everything even if it requires tenuous hard labour and enormous tasks is the true way to live a life. And he believes that’s how success and happiness to be tasted too.

What Will misses in these twisted stories of unbelievable magic is that the way Edward tells it is to give the flavour. While people get fascinated by the magical aspect of it, there lies moral in each and everything. Metaphor in all the letters directly relating the reality. Even the pain and enduring ordeal of his seem interesting and fun. He preaches that the hard and tough life is as such the way to live. People miss the fun of attaining success when they complain about the hardship they put through. What most of them do not understand is that the path to it is the interesting and enriching adventure of all. Will seem to be in that mentality. But as a son it is understandable when it is painful to end the relationship of the sacred father-son bond without knowing the “real” Edward.

There are pot holes in the plot. Definitely Ewan McGregor does not look eighteen as they portray him. Also when Will tries to tell the final journey of Edward, the visual is striking but the voice and the stand of him in this story telling does not look convincing. Regardless of that, the send off is memorable. Death is made sweeter and merrier as Edward who always was that cheerful positive person.

The film as a whole is a metaphor of our life. The balance of truth and the fantasy covering it has been marred and disfigured. The same kind of character was developed in an Italian movie called “Life is Beautiful”. There the father creates a competitive fantasy world for his son with an unusual and cruel atmosphere. Where evil is sprouted in every face, he shows them as the stepping stones for bigger success. Both in that and in Tim Burton’s “Big Fish” the father remains the touching figure for everyone. We fall for his intelligent naivety and comic description of the mundane things in life. The difference of course is a lot with respect to performance and situations. But it is quite unusually striking to find a character migrating in different movies with unusual circumstances.

“Big Fish” has more subtle open interpretation of life and reality. It could have been said as a very normal routine based father-son relationship blooming in the end. It does try to do that but the story centralizes so much on Edward that it is lost as that of Will says he gets lost in his father’s stories. For some reason while the film teaches so much about seeing life in different interesting points of view, becomes a victim of its own. Edward taking the central stage somehow negates the relationship with Will. It is an irony that while Will has the same feeling towards Edward, it is strange that even when Will is shown to understand Edward, we are not satisfied. Yet it is a movie to be watched for colourful visual with childrens rhymes for adults.