Big Fish Movie Review

Big Fish is a story about a man, Edward Bloom, who is a magnificent story teller, and his son—William Bloom—who has a grudge against these stories. The movie was directed by Tim Burton in 2003, which he based off the Big Fish book written in 1988 by Daniel Wallace. Throughout the movie we see not only the present life of Edward Bloom, but the many past stories of his childhood and adult life. We are also introduced to several other characters including the younger version of Edward Bloom, Edward’s wife—Sandra, and Will’s wife— Penelope. The stories told in the movie are in Edward’s point of view, and we get many glimpses of where, what, and who Edward has done and met throughout his life. These range from going to a witch’s house and seeing his time and reason for death, to being in a circus, and even to falling in love with his present wife Sandra.

This film was not only entertaining for me, but it also tugged at my heart, which makes me like it even more. I love movies that give you a life lesson or influence your life positively. I also liked how the director bounced back and forth between the present life of Edward Bloom, and the past life of Edward. It made the storyline interesting and complicated, but in a way that was still easy to follow along and understand. Overall I felt like this movie was relatable and all kinds of people would like to watch this movie. I give Big Fish a hole-in-one!

One key part of the movie that made every scene interesting was the acting of Albert Finney or the grown-up version of Edward Bloom. I could never guess what he was thinking or what he was going to say next. Especially toward the end of the movie when everyone just wanted to know if his stories were true or not, I could never tell. He was so serious, but not serious enough to be scary or mean. His character in my opinion was naturally likable. For example in the movie when he was telling his stories to Penelope in the bedroom, it reminded me of when my dad would tell me stories about his childhood, and it gave me something to smile about. The things he went through in life—like falling in love—made him easy to understand, he made me laugh, and he came across as a grandfather or dad figure that made him relatable.

Another part of the movie that I found interesting was how the character of William Bloom evolved throughout the movie. At the beginning of the movie Will was full of resentment and anger towards his dad. He was frustrated that he believed all of his stories growing up, and all this time he thought they were 100% true. You could tell that during his wedding he was frustrated that his dad was taking his spotlight—the one night that he had to have all the attention. Then another time in the bedroom scene with his father, we see Will become frustrated that his dad won’t open up to him about his real life. As the movie went on, we see Will begin to understand why his dad created these big over the top stories to go along with his life. At the end of the movie I feel like Edward actually becomes a part of Will. He begins to tell stories of his own to his son and become a story teller just like his father was.

I also felt like the director did a very good job creating the right mood throughout the movie. During the movie I could feel the anger Will had towards his father. This especially was apparent at Will’s wedding. But in other instances, I could feel the love Will had for his father. This was obvious when Will drank the rest of his father’s nutrition drink. In a simple way, Will was showing that he loved his father by covering up that his father really didn’t drink all of it. Another strong emotion I felt was sadness. In certain parts of the movie, I felt like I was slowly losing my own father with Will, Sandra, and Penelope. I felt the same emotions the characters were feeling because the movie created the perfect scenes that allowed me to easily understand what they were going through and allowed me to feel the same emotions they were feeling.

Overall this movie was the perfect balance between comedy, sadness, and entertainment. I love how the movie tugged at my heart strings and I could connect with everything the movie characters were feeling and going through. I loved watching the characters evolve into better people by the end of the movie and the acting of the characters was wonderful. This is a movie all kinds of people would love to watch and I give it an A plus! I hope you will enjoy this movie just as much as I did.