Big Fish (2003)

So can Tim Burton make a decent film that isn't goth and doesn't star Johnny Depp? It turns out that's what he should have been doing since "Batman Returns".

Burton commissioned Eddie Vedder to make a song for this flick, and reportedly the entire band was blown away by the story. Fitting then, that Pearl Jam's "Man of the Hour" is such a perfectly contrasted end to Burton's colourful story, with its down to earth melody and, under the circumstances, heart-breaking lyrics. Nominated for a Golden Globe, ridiculously losing out to Annie Lennox.

And the story does baffle. It could so easily have been dismissed as stupid and silly, so easily overacted (particularly if Depp had to do yet another Burton). But Burton holds it together by a thread, with a breathtaking cast, so meticulously selected I doubt any pundits can make a cry for an improvement. And he even manages to show us how aware he was of the tight rope he was walking in the final scenes. Kudos.

Though McGregor is fantastic as the determined, optimistic nice guy Edward Bloom of his youth, it's the current day cast that excels. Albert Finney is at his utter finest, the old shining beacon of a man slowly extinguishing with his ever supportive wife (a brilliant Jessica Lange) and estranged son (the always underrated Billy Crudup), there for all too different purposes in his final days. Who knew that Burton was able of such exceptional displays of everyday toil and love. Watch carefully for the scene with Lange and Finney in the tub. Lovely.

That Burton spices the cast with exceptional cameos for Steve Buscemi, Danny DeVito and Marion Cotillard can only be to further joy.

Burton cuts perfectly between past and present, life and death, (semi)-fantasy and reality, balancing the frustrated son perfectly with his creative and eager father, partly through the diplomat-wife with 30 years of experience cancelling out the two stubborn men in her life.

If I was to nitpick, I would have to point out that Burton could also have left out Helena Bonham-Carter as she is all to familiar to his tones, and we are to her impact in his films, and there are a couple of scenes where McGregor could have benefited from tighter directing.

Other than that, this is perhaps Burton's finest work, his usual grand scenography actually coupled with a loyalty to the story and an amazing cast.

9/10