All his life, Will Bloom (Billy Crudup) had to listen to his father's (Albert Finney) tall tales. It was fine when he was a kid, but the stories didn't change as he grew, leaving him feeling like he never really knew the man, or worse, that the truth was being deliberately withheld. When his father is admitted into palliative care, Will moves home with his very pregnant wife (Marion Cotillard) to be there and try to unravel the mysterious life of young Edward Bloom (Ewan McGregor).
It is a familiar feeling to Southerners, listening to half-truths and embroidered tales because they make for more entertaining stories. Weaving a yarn is as natural as breathing to some. My grandfather could charm the birds from the trees when he wanted, and I've been known to spin a tale myself.
Watching it again, I realized for the first time, that this was actually The Odyssey, one of the very oldest of our big fish tales. The monsters are there, the trials, the triumphs, but filtered through a lens of Spanish moss and swampwater.
So many of Burton's films center on the outsider, a weird-looking loner misunderstood by the cookie-cutter clones that surround him, but Big Fish shows that you can look the same as everyone else, and still feel out of place.
It's currently not streaming but you should own this one anyway.
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