Big Fish Details

After his foray into the dangerous world of remakes with Planet of the Apes, director Tim Burton returns to more familiar territory — a strange place somewhere between reality and fantasy, dream and nightmare. Albert Finney plays Edward Bloom, an Alabama travelling salesman whose apparent neglect and selfishness, coupled with ridiculous stories of his exploits, have driven a wedge between him and son Will (Billy Crudup). Called to his father's deathbed, Will is infuriated when his wife is regaled with tall tales in which young Edward (Ewan McGregor) encounters a giant, a witch, a shape-changing circus ringmaster and a big fish no one can catch. Intent on exposing his father, the disgruntled son sets out to learn the truth. Despite being confined to his bed, Finney conjures up the charisma of the fabulist — brought to life in flashback by McGregor, performing his familiar, but effective, cheeky chappie routine. Essentially a road movie, Big Fish drifts colourfully along, but ultimately lacks the edge that made Edward Scissorhands so powerful, as well as so strange.

Meandering and unenlightening whimsy, though its cast search valiantly for some meaning in Burton's light, bright fantasies.