Big Fish

William Bloom is a journalist with a rational approach to life. That is why he has never got on well with his father, Edward Bloom, who loves to entertain with his fantastic tales of his childhood and youth. William has simply grown tired of his father's casual relationship with the truth, but when the old man is on his deathbed, William nevertheless breaks many years of silence and returns to his childhood home in Alabama with his pregnant wife Josephine.

In flashbacks we are presented with the highlights of Edward's fabulous life, for instance his magical first meeting with the one and only and his friendship with a giant. Is it true or false or something in between? William has never been in any doubt that it is all lies, but in the presence of his life-loving father he nevertheless realises that life holds much more than his rigid way of thinking has so far been able to grasp. That is also a recurring theme in several of director Tim Burton's other films, but it never comes across more clearly than here. Unfortunately the story never really catches fire in Big Fish. The film is handsome to look at with its brightly coloured fairy-tale sequences, but there is not much momentum in the plot, and certainly not in the supposed conflict between father and son.