Big Fish - Der Zauber, der ein Leben zur Legende macht

Big Fish is nowhere near a perfect movie. Sometimes the dialogue is awkward, the pacing drags at times, and Steve Buscemi is, as always, a weirdo. There are bizarre and fantastical ideas that can take you out of the movie. For all its flaws, I can't give it more than an 8. That being said, this is my favorite movie of all time.

Big Fish strikes a chord with me. It examines the value of a life, our modern-day myths, and, ultimately, the nature of our humanity. I don't cry easily, and I'm not just saying that - I didn't cry at Schindler's List, or Titanic; but Big Fish makes me sob every time. The ultimate catharsis, where a man's identity, value, integrity, and family are all validated, and his life has been a life worth living.

Tim Burton was definitely the man for the job on this film, and if you like his other classics like Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Batman, you'll probably enjoy this one, too. What else can I say, this is my favorite movie.

I've had high hopes for this movie since I first heard about it some time ago. After all, most of the Tim Burton movies I've seen (barring Planet of the Apes) have been really wonderful. To say the least, Big Fish did not disappoint me. The story - by no means complex or suspenseful - was simple enough to allow the viewer to really take in the fantasy and mythology in Edward Bloom's tales. One didn't need a surprise ending or secret identities to make this film enjoyable. Rather, it was the simplicity and universal nature of the story that made it interesting. While some reviews have mentioned that the film can seem choppy at times, I didn't see this at all. The transition seemed smooth and logical, and while sometimes I found myself wishing for more scenes of younger Edward Bloom, I never felt bored by any of the movie. Nothing seemed to 'drag'. I was also quite impressed with the quality of acting in nearly the entire cast. Billy Crudup didn't really hit his stride until the end, but he was tolerable through the first three-quarters of the movie. Albert Finney did a great job of portraying a lion on his last legs, bigger than his body but unable to show it. Jessica Lange was amazing and added the emotional oomph that Billy Crudup often failed to provide. And while Ewan McGregor's role was not particularly difficult, at no point did he overplay the character, and his accent (to my ear anyway) never slipped. Though this wasn't as dark as Sleepy Hollow or as bizarre as Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice, Big Fish definitely had the Tim Burton touch in its scenery. The colors - whether dull for Elder Bloom's time or bright for Younger Bloom - matched the mood perfectly, and everywhere you looked (especially in Bloom the Younger's timeframe) there was something else to marvel at. Tim Burton fans will not be disappointed.

Every other year you get a movie that oozes magic and charm. Think "Chocolat". Think "Amelie". Think "What dreams may come". Perhaps even, "Being John Malkovich". And this year, it's time to think big... "Big Fish", to be precise. All four of these movies have some things in common. Merely describing the premise is not nearly enough to do justice to the mood of the film. And the mood, the emotional reaction of the audience, is in many ways much more important than the actual content. Still, there's no way around it in a proper review: We meet a disillusioned young man and his father, a charming old guy who knows exactly how to tell stories to fascinate first-time listeners and children. Unfortunately, there's barely any of those left, as he retold his magical stories once too often. When his health and life are beginning to fade away, his son wants to finally learn the truth about his father. Meanwhile, we hear his life story, as he tells it... Tim Burton is probably best-known for visual eye candy movies. Few directors can compete with the imagination he's shown in movies like Batman, Nightmare before Christmas and Sleepy Hollow. Outside the realm of darker, more gothic visuals, Tim Burton has so far been somewhat less prolific. Planet of the Apes was an expensive embarrassment, and Ed Wood is a decidedly acquired taste. Big Fish, then, is a new direction for him. Yes, it is eye candy, or perhaps even eye H"agen Dazs. But this time, the movie has much more of a soul than his monkeyplanet. This soul is achieved by two means: a great story (or collection of stories) and great acting. If you don't believe that the story is great, watch the audience. At key moments, everyone was chuckling or laughing, at others, I heard dozens of sniffs and tissues being unpacked around me. Yes, this is heartwarming stuff that a colder, more cynical soul would call cheese. Finally, Burton has found a story worthy of his talents again. And, better yet, he did not forget to encourage his cast to act. For a case study of such failure, see Christina Ricci's completely flat performance in Sleepy Hollow. In Big Fish, the cast is so carefully selected that failure is simply not an option. Ewan McGregor (playing the father in his youth) may not have much more to do than smile, be charming and sustain a Southern US accent, but he does it brilliantly. Much more important are the performances of Albert Finney and Jessica Lange, playing the aged father and mother, respectively. And they both deliver character performances worthy of prizes.

After cheerleading so enthusiastically for this movie, perhaps it is time to take a step back and look at it from a more critical perspective. Yes, it managed to enchant the audience, but it did so the Hollywood way. Special effects and big budget feature heavily. This is in stark contrast to the seemingly much less organized and much more intuitional charm of Amelie. This movie is also much more comfy about its pace - it takes its time just like a good storyteller would, but perhaps leaving behind the five-second-attention-span MTV generation kids in the process. On the other hand, I am tempted to say that its biggest vice is that there just isn't enough of it. Given the episodal structure of this movie, I can almost imagine what it would have felt like as TV series, or multi-part TV movie. I am not sure whether to wish for this to happen or shudder at the thought of "Big Fish: The Animated Series" or some such atrocity. Every story told in this movie is perfect, and a series of such perfect stories would be wonderful. Yet can perfection be sustained for a large number of stories? Either way, I wonder what is going to become of Big Fish - a franchise or a single movie. It definitely is more deserving of praise, awards and viewers than any other movie released during the past six months, including LOTR-RotK.

The whole story of a man's life is something large, but this movie managed to be entertaining and comical telling a story by dividing it into many stages so well told it feels like it's a little fairy tale, so many aspects and many temporal lines in 2 hours that feels like just a single hour.

The story itself is touching and beautiful while the time placement (involving the wardrobe used and design of the places as well) totally transports the audience to those years, it's colorful and complements the "adventure vibe"

This is undoubtedly a great movie to watch with the family, so every single member can appreciate each other stories and how they all got intertwined.

My father was a brilliant sculptor and a great visionary. When I was a kid, I never could explain what he was doing. I got it a month before his death when i was 26. This film filled my eyes with tears, because it reminded me him. he had a lot of ideas and brilliant and original ideas for improving the world, but for all his life he could not sell it to anyone, because those ideas filled his whole day. Literally. His whole apartment was filled with papers. Thank you for this movie. Thank you for the message. I would add a note that when we dream, we are escaping from the world of facts and truths. When my father said that if you think of anything in life, you have to write it down because what comes to your mind it never comes again it changed my life. Now I'm writing a book - a novel from environment of Mesopotamia and that just because my father was someone who believed in imagination and creative values​​.