BIG FISH

3 Stars – Thought-Provoking

The stories our families tell about our individual and collective lives define us. Though some families tell their tales with simple facts, other families weave fact with fiction into romantic tales of conquest and love, creating a larger-than-life family identity. Such family tales are not so much a dishonest historical record as an embellished romantic interpretation, providing color and flavor to often bland and empty lives. This ability to tell a tale about the “big fish” that got away is the theme of Tim Burton’s “Big Fish.”

A master storyteller himself, Burton takes the novel by Daniel Wallace about a young man’s coming to understand his father and weaves a journey that is familiar to all of us who have struggled through coming to peace in our relationships with our parents. Having seen himself as being deceived by his father’s “tall tales,” Will Bloom (Billy Crudup) dedicates himself to only reporting the facts as a UPI journalist. His father Ed (Ewan McGregor as a young man, and Albert Finney as an older man) has told the stories of his life with such flare that Will does not believe he actually knows his father. Will mistakes fact for knowing and does not recognize that it is in the fiction that his father’s soul was laid bare before family and friends. In many ways, it is in the embellishment of the story that the inward character and romantic designs of Ed became known.

The disadvantage we have as children in truly knowing our parents is due to two things: first, we could not know them in their formative years for we were not yet born; and second, as children we have little ability to evaluate our parents, for they determine and define our lives. It is not until we enter our twenties that we begin to have the ability to understand these amazing people we call “our parents.” And it is then that we begin to distill fact from fiction out of the stories our families tell and, if we are able, we can continue the tale as we share in the essence rather than the facts of the story.

This sharing becomes possible in Will’s life as he comes to be with his father in the last days of his terminal cancer. Entering into his father’s life after a four-year silence between them, this moment of passing allows Will to enter his father’s story with an authenticity to both of them that connects their souls. It is a moment of spiritual healing that allows his father to experience the love and acceptance of his son.

As the film brings together fact and fiction in the final scenes of the funeral, there is an awareness that in all Ed has told his son, there is a truth that was expressed as much by the embellishment as by the facts. This message allows us to experience the truth that life is more than physical and relationships are more than facts. We also experience that to truly understand someone, we must listen with the heart and imagination as well as with the ears and the mind.

Discussion:

When Dr. Bennett (Robert Guillaume) tells Will the real account of his birth, he tells Will that he actually prefers Ed’s embellishment. What does the embellishment tell us about Will’s birth that the facts could not?
The nature of the relationship that Ed has with his son is one of absence. How much do you believe this absence makes it difficult for Will to accept his father, stories or not?
As a traveling salesman, it is clear that Ed has been faithful to his beloved wife Sandra (Alison Lohman when younger, and Jessica Lange when older). How does the tale of his purchase of the town reinforce this?
Ed’s story of the witch whose eye foretold his death was a prominent source of courage for him throughout his life and his many adventures. When it comes to his end and it is clear that he doesn’t know how he will die, Will creates for him an ending which perfectly completes the tale of the “Big Fish.” How could someone at your moment of passing help you complete the story of your life?

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Cinema In Focus is a social and spiritual movie commentary. Hal Conklin is former mayor of Santa Barbara and Denny Wayman is pastor of the Free Methodist Church. For more reviews: http://www.cinemainfocus.com.