Tim Burton should make an alternative cut called Big Fish: Flashbacks Only for when you want to watch but don't want to cry.
I always thought I wouldn't like this, and when Ewan McGregor says he's 18 early in the film, I believed I was correct.
I was not correct.
What a fantastic journey. I loved all the flashbacks, the adventures, the heart, the charm, the characters, the aesthetics, the casting, the everything. I was swept up in the magic and forgot it was clearly going to lead to the father's passing, and then I was a sobbing mess.
Big Fish
An adventure as big as life itself.
Rating
4.8 (2)
Release Date
12/10/2003Runtime
125 minsOverview
Throughout his life Edward Bloom has always been a man of big appetites, enormous passions and tall tales. In his later years, he remains a huge mystery to his son, William. Now, to get to know the real man, Will begins piecing together a true picture of his father from flashbacks of his amazing adventures.
Status
ReleasedOriginal Language
EnglishBudget
$70,000,000Revenue
$123,200,000Homepage
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How It Feels
Read from this film's synopsis, keywords and credits, and used to work out what it sits beside.
A tender exploration of how we know, and misunderstand, the people we love, told through a father's larger-than-life stories and his son's search for truth beneath the legends. It's a meditation on storytelling itself, where the line between myth and reality dissolves into something more important than either.
Mood
WistfulMelancholicRomanticWhimsicalBittersweet
Themes
FamilyLoveMemoryMortalityIdentity
Tone
Tender
Pacing
Meditative
Look
PainterlyStylized genreFormalist
Structure
Framed flashback
Ewan McGregor
Ed Bloom (young)
Albert Finney
Ed Bloom (senior)
Billy Crudup
Will Bloom
Jessica Lange
Sandra Bloom (senior)
Helena Bonham Carter
Jenny (young & senior) / The Witch
Alison Lohman
Sandra Bloom (young)
Robert Guillaume
Dr. Bennett (senior)
Marion Cotillard
Josephine
Matthew McGrory
Karl the Giant
David Denman
Don Price (age 18-22)
Missi Pyle
Mildred
Loudon Wainwright III
Beamen
Reviews
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