Tim Burton’s BIG FISH was not the first feature film shot in and around Montgomery, but it was the latest and the greatest – relatively speaking, that is.  For several months, lots of real movie stars lived here, ate here, shopped here, partied here.  Once you’ve hung with the locals in Cloverdale, who needs Hollywood?  All in all, it was a grand experience and the buzz will continue for some time.  THAT was the good news.

The bad news is that BIG FISH could have been so much better.  Way better.  I haven’t read Daniel Wallace’s book from which the film was based, but I’ll bet money that it is a delightful page turner.  The story line is so clever and interesting – I can see why a big-time director chose it for a project.  A charming book by another Alabama writer (Winston Groom’s Forrest Gump) was very successfully adapted to the big screen a few years ago.  And it too was wonderfully eccentric, allowing any number of wild scenes and interpretations.  In any case, I had read the BIG FISH reviews and interviews and I was certain that it was going to be great.  Who doesn’t like giants and witches and werewolves, all spun in tall tales from a charismatic southerner?

BIG FISH was a pleasant two hours of entertainment, though the almost unanimous high praise offered up by the critics and film insiders was lost on me.  It simply did not satisfy.  The acting, overall, was uninspired and unspectacular.  In their defense, I suspect the actors were interpreting the script the best they knew how – it just wasn’t very good.  A couple of scenes should have left viewers in a puddle of tears – one with Albert Finney (Edward) & Jessica Lange (Sandra) in the bathtub and the other when Billy Crudup (Will) takes his dying father (Finney) into the river.  There was a little cinematic poignancy, but you didn’t feel distraught or helpless.  It just wasn’t real and it didn’t deliver.  I cannot help but feel that a director other than Burton could have flooded the theatre. 

Which brings up a final point……Tim Burton , for all his imagination and his success, is the man who gave us Edward Scissorhands, Beetle Juice, Sleepy Hollow and A Nightmare Before Christmas, all big money movies.  Why did I think that BIG FISH was going to be different?  No, it wasn’t disturbingly dark, but it was classic Burton fare.  Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.  Did he make the film that he set out to make?  Probably, though I’ll never know.  BIG FISH may not have ever made it to the big screen at all without Tim Burton.  And for that I am grateful.  It was nice for local folks to get in the movie as extras and for local businesses to reap the benefits of the event.  I hope it is successful worldwide.  But, unfortunately, I’m not really considering watching it again.  Something very special was squandered somehow.  Just imagine Mayberry with Andy Warhol instead of Andy Griffith.  No thanks.   GD