 The fish story that is Big Fish, director Tim Burton's new film about a terminally ill father (Albert Finney, played as a younger man by Ewan McGregor) who tells whoppers and the adult son (Billy Crudup) who resents him, is attracting mixed reviews as it opens in limited release today (Wednesday). A. O. Scott writes in the New York Times: "The film insists on viewing its hero [Finney] as an affectionate, irrepressible raconteur. From where I sat, he looked more like an incorrigible narcissist and also, perhaps, a compulsive liar, whose love for others is little more than overflowing self-infatuation." John Anderson in Newsday writes that Big Fish "flounders." On the other hand, Megan Lehmann in the New York Post calls it "dazzling" and concludes: "There are quirks aplenty in Big Fish, but spirited performances from a talented cast, led by a standout Finney as the slippery-fish raconteur, help domesticate the wall-to-wall weirdness." And Manohla Dargis comments in the Los Angeles Times: "Big fish often swim in small ponds, but in Tim Burton's wistful new film about a son, a father and the lies that come between them there are no small ponds -- just big, bright movie sets shimmering and bubbling with the director's imagination." |
