I’ve liked every one of the films that Tim Burton has made, but for some inexplicable reason I didn’t see Big Fish in the theatre. While many critics have praised it as Burton’s most mature film, etc, etc, etc, I think that they’re ignoring a lot of Burton’s work. Sleepy Hollow is complex, dark and solid. Ed Wood is brilliant as it tells the story of a tragic figure in the style of the films of Ed Wood. What I think Big Fish manages to do is combine the more serious elements of Burton’s work with the more fanciful elements. There is a great cast and a sentimental story that sucked me in. How could I not love a story about someone who tells stories? It’s an episodic tale of a man’s life told through stories with a framing structure that holds it all together. It’s beautiful and melodramatic, and it clicked for me. Telling stories is one of the fundamental and important things that we do whenever more than one person is around. We should celebrate it more.
