Neil Young’s Film Lounge – Big Fish
BIG FISH
5/10
USA 2003 : Tim BURTON : 125 mins
Big Fish is the story (or rather the stories) of Edward Bloom (Albert Finney), a travelling salesman from Alabama. Though the actual circumstances of his life are seemingly somewhat mundane, Bloom has always embroidered and elaborated them into semi-fantastical tall tales to the point where his son Will (Billy Crudup) has become frustrated and estranged. But when the older Blooms health takes a terminal turn for the worse, the stage is set for an emotional father-son reconciliation and yet more of those very tall tales.
Burtons film is adapted from Daniel Wallaces novel Big Fish : A Novel of Mythic Proportions and it seems screenwriter John August found condensing such proportions into two hours a near-impossible task. The material would probably be better suited to a multi-episode TV programme, each episode devoted to another of Edwards wild stories – but in this format, Big Fish, though mostly watchable, feels more like a disappointingly conventional illustrated-summary of the novel rather than the fully-realised re-imagining which Burtons semi-visionary reputation might have led us to expect.
29th January, 2004
(seen 26th January : Odeon The Gate, Newcastle)
click here for the essay-length version of this review
by Neil Young
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