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Big Fish Movie Review Summary

Actors: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, Danny DeVito, Steve Buscemi, Robert Guillaume

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of Big Fish


Ed was always bigger than life to all his friends, always telling one story after another. His son grew up resenting the constant stories, always feeling like he never really knew his father because he never answered any question without telling a story. He thought the stories were all baloney. One day he receives word his father is dying of cancer. Maybe its time to put bad feelings aside and try to mend fences with his father. This time maybe he should listen to those stories.
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The review of this Movie prepared by BethG




Edward Bloom has enchanted many with the stories of his life. His son, William, now grown up, has grown tired of them. Now his father is dying, and must come to grips and see him for some final talks with him. We then see his stories in many flashbacks while coming back to reality. The young Edward made friends with a giant, found the perfect town but refused to stay, fought in the Korean War, and the list of stories go on and on. The most beautiful story in the film is when Edward meets the love of his life, Sandra. Time stops, and Edward agrees to work in the circus to find out where she lives.
The review of this Movie prepared by Estefan Ellison




Will Bloom (Billy Crudup) has been estranged from his father, Edward Bloom (Albert Finney), for quite some time. Living in France with his pregnant wife, Will hurries home when his mother (Jessica Lange) tells him that his father is dying and that it is only a matter of time. Will tries to have some serious conversations with his father about who he really is, but all he can get out of him are these tall tales that used to entertain Will when he was a child, but now that he is grown up, he doesn't believe in them anymore. There are stories about a young Edward Bloom (Ewan McGregor) having the golden touch in his small hometown and winning at everything. Stories of how he lured a giant out of town and fought his way through a swamp to a forgotten Eden of a town. Stories of how he worked for the circus and won the information about the girl he fell in love with at first sight. So many stories, but all of them so fantastical that they simply couldn't be true! But as his father continues to slip away, Will comes to realize that there is some truth in every story and that, given the choice, wouldn't we all prefer the story with a little bit of magic woven in...?

Big Fish was an unexpectedly charming drama that was not quite as fantastical as I envisioned given the previews. It is very much a father/son relationship movie and it was sweet to see both the father and the son come to some important realizations in the film. The Blooms are a very loving family and Will's parents were still madly in love when he died, which is so refreshing to see in a film these days. Of course, we see Edward Burton's touch mostly in the flashbacks where Ewan McGregor plays Edward Bloom as he has so many amazing adventures and these sequences really added to the film and made it something special instead of commonplace. If you are looking for a sweet little drama with a touch of something different, then this is a wonderful film with a great cast that will make you laugh and cry - take the whole family!
The review of this Movie prepared by Debbie




Ed Bloom (Finney), elderly Alabama gentleman, is dying. Everybody likes Ed because he tells such great stories; everybody, that is, except his son Will (Crudup) who is a UPA correspondent and finds his father's endless tales irritating. Now that Ed is dying, Will returns from his job in Paris with a pregnant French wife in tow, hoping to get "the truth" out of his long estranged father at last. But the stories keep on coming -- about a giant catfish caught with a wedding ring, a witch in whose glass eye you can view your eventual death, a hidden town where everyone is happy and everything's perfect, a poet who turns bank robber after 12 years of writer's block and eventually becomes a Wall Street tycoon, a parachute jump into the Korean War that lands in a North Korean USO show and results in rescue of and by a pair of attached Siamese-twin torch singers -- and in piecing together the tales, accounts from other folks, and a few scraps of documentary evidence, Will comes to understand his father's achievements and failures. McGregor plays young Ed Bloom in the extensive story-flashbacks, Lange is his wife, and DeVito a cheerful werewolf who owns a circus. Tim Burton's sweet and sentimental 2003 offering is charmingly oddball -- a sort of Wizard of Oz for today -- if stronger on visual effects than story.
The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus



Script Analysis of Big Fish

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Plot & Themes

Time/era of movie:    -   2000's+ (present) Family, struggling with    -   Yes Struggle with:    -   Father Inner struggle or disability    -   Yes Struggle with    -   search for family/history Coping with loss of loved one?    -   Yes

Main Character

Identity:    -   Male Age:    -   20's-30's Ethnicity/Nationality    -   White American

Setting

United States    -   Yes The US:    -   Southeast    -   Deep South Small town?    -   Yes Small town people:    -   nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee

Writing Style

Accounts of torture and death?    -   generic/vague references to death/punishment Any profanity?    -   Occasional swearing Is this movie based on a    -   book

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