Big Fish

I gotta great one to tell ya. But first, let’s let a few other folks tell you some stories. SPIDER-MAN 2–I saw this trailer about a month ago online, but it looks better on the big screen. (Too bad the sound was WAY too low. Turn it up next time, guys!) It’s just a teaser with flashes of action, but that car through the window in the opening scene is pretty awesome. Can’t wait to continue the story of the greatest comic book creation. And neither can you, true believers.

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT–Huh. It finally happened. An Ashton Kutcher movie that I’m actually interested in seeing. Too bad he’s in it, though. He’ll find a way to fuck it up. Cameron Crowe didn’t fire him off of his set for no reason, ya know?

This flick follows a guy who figures out how to go back in time and start over. He saves his girlfriend only to find out that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Then he does it again. And again. And again. Finally, things get so fucked up that he can’t figure out how to save it. I can see how this is going to end (badly), but I still kinda want to see it. I read about it in Fangoria a while back and have been interested ever since. But, since it’s Ashton, I’ll wait ’til video.

50 FIRST DATES–Adam Sandler gets back with his best co-star, Drew Barrymore. This time she’s a girl who can’t remember what happened to her the day before. When they meet, they hit it off and then she forgets by the next morning. Too bad for him. But he still manages to get her in bed every night. Bastard.

Looks pretty funny. I hope it’s as good as The Wedding Singer and not shitty like, well, the last 10 movies he’s done.

Did I ever tell you about the time that Ed Bloom (Albert Finney) told so many stories that his son, Will (Billy Crudup) didn’t believe him anymore? He told a lot of tall tales and swore up and down that each one was absolutely true. But they were so unbelievable that Will just couldn’t take it anymore. When Will moves away to France with his new wife, Josephine (Marion Cotillard from the Taxi films…yeah, I’ve never seen ‘em, either), he stops talking to his father. He wants to know the real man beneath the stories.

But fate changes everything when his mom, Sandra (Jessica Lange), calls him and tells him that Ed is dying. Will and Josephine pack up and go back to America to be with the ailing old man, but things haven’t changed between the two men. Ed is still telling all of the same tales and Will is still bored with them.

But is there some truth to these stories? Are they just embellishments of real events? Or is Ed just delusional?

In flashbacks we see the events of the stories take place with young Ed (Ewan McGregor) and young Sandra (Alison Lohman) and they are pretty fantastical. But Tim Burton keeps the charm alive for each of them and makes you long for the stories as the real events unfold.

Funny thing is, when the stories are being told, you really want to know what goes on in the real world. Both worlds are so charming and interesting that you get sucked into both of them without even really realizing it.

Burton has come a long way in his career. He started out making freaked out comedies about strange people in stranger lands, went through some superhero flicks, did a couple of prestige pictures with his own brand of freakiness and then came the doldrums. His last three films have divided his fans more than anyone thought they could. Everyone pretty much agreed, though, that Planet Of The Apes just plain sucked.

But he’s bounced back with his best film yet. It’s a story that he’s been grappling with in his films for years (the difference between truth and fiction), but now he goes a route that no one would have seen: pure sentiment.

This is not your typical Burton film, and yet it is. In the real world (Albert Finney and Billy Crudup) everything is normal. It’s a fairly typical story of a young man coming home and coming to terms with his father’s impending death. But the dream world (Ewan McGregor and Alison Lohman looking a LOT like Jessica Lange) is pure Burton. Everything is exaggerated, colorful, foreboding, beautiful and full of fantasy.

The acting is awesome throughout. Finney and McGregor are two sides of the same coin. They’re full of life and vigor even when they’re sitting in a sick bed. Jessica Lange hasn’t been this good in years. The supporting cast is pretty amazing, too. Danny DeVito (in his third Burton role), Helana Bohnam Carter (in her second and ugliest), Matthew McGrory (he’s the 7’6″ guy. You can’t miss ‘im), Robert Guillaume (yay, Benson!), Steve Buscemi (my favorite of the supporting characters) and, of course, Billy Redden. You know him. He’s the Deliverance kid!

This movie supplants Ed Wood as my favorite Tim Burton film. It’s got all of the elements of a classic Burton film (including a great and subtle Danny Elfman score) combined with a normalcy that isn’t usually apparent in his films. It’s a story about stories and about fathers and sons. Go see it soon and often. And take your dad.

This movie makes me even more unable to wait for Tim’s version of Willy Wonka. A whole year and a half?! Damn!!