Tim Burton's memory drama Big Fish is a bit like a travelogue narrated by its creator.
The actual shots of faraway places and exotic people are spectacular and completely mesmerizing.
It's just that the interludes used to bridge the traveller's memories seem clunky and forced.
There's no question that Big Fish contains some of the most magical scenes in recent memory -- delighting the senses as only Burton can when he invites audiences to participate in his wonderful imagination.
It's just Burton still hasn't learned to tell a story.
Big Fish is a series of tantalizing episodes that never fully come together.
The thread that links the flights of fantasy is the story of Edward Bloom (Albert Finney) and his emotionally-estranged son Will (Billy Crudup).
Will is a journalist.
Edward was an adventurer whose tall tales delighted and captivated everyone except Will, who thinks his father is just a colourful liar.
Edward thinks Will's articles and stories are dull because they are too factual.
Edward is dying and his wife Sandra (Jessica Lange) wants father and son to bond before it is too late.
The young Edward in the tall tales is played by Ewan McGregor in what is one of the finest performances of 2003.
There is an incredible innocence about McGregor's Edward that allows us to believe in giants, witches, mystical towns, werewolves, conjoined twins and gargantuan catfish, as much as Edward.
It helps, of course, that these memories play out in worlds created by production designer Dennis Gassner, who won an Oscar for Bugsy and designed such films as The Truman Show, Road to Perdition and most of the Coen brothers' films.
The magic realism of Gassner's sets inspire magical performances from the characters who people the worlds.
Helena Bonham Carter plays the witch as a spooky incarnation of childhood fears and Danny DeVito makes the big-top owner sly and manipulative.
Back in the real world, Finney, Lange and Crudup do what they can to make these people as interesting as those in memories, but it doesn't work.
For one thing, Finney looks too robust to be wasting away from terminal cancer and Crudup is too sullen.
In the twinkling of her eyes and winsome simile, Lange shows some of the effects of having lived her life with an adventurer and storyteller.
Big Fish has some very big rewards and, for long stretches, is absolutely enthralling.
It never completely reels in the audience because it sputters every time magic realism gives way to realism.
(This film is rated PG)
More Movie Reviews
