Burton's Big Fish uplifting, with a hint of despair

BIG FISH is easily the most personal and mature film Tim Burton has made in years.

It is also one of those films that manages to be both sad and uplifting at the same time -- uplifting, because it points to a profound truth, but sad, because it offers no basis for that truth; beneath the film's feel-good vibe, there is just a hint of despair.

Ewan McGregor in Big Fish.

When news comes that Edward is dying, Will reluctantly comes home with his wife, whose presence gives Edward yet another chance to spin his yarns about one-eyed witches, towering giants, hidden towns, conjoined twins and the vast field of daffodils with which he wooed his wife (Alison Lohman in the flashbacks, Jessica Lange in the present-day scenes).

Of course, father and son are reconciled in the end, and Will learns to live within his father's imaginary world and to accept that stories can be more important than the facts. There is a glimmer of truth in this; as Tolkien and Lewis showed, myth can point to higher truths than mere facts, and some of the stories Edward tells do point to deeper, more intangible realities, especially where his love for his wife is concerned.

But stories need to be heard as much as they need to be told, and if it is by sharing our stories with each other that we become more fully human people, then it is disappointing that Edward shows barely any interest in hearing the stories of others. We get to hear and see his version of how he and his wife first met, but what is her side of the story?

The film ends with the suggestion that it is through our stories, and the stories that we can get other people to tell about us, that we achieve immortality. But this rings hollow to my ears; if our only chance for eternal life is to hope that people keep on talking about us, then what happens when everyone else is dead, too?

Burton falls just short of Tolkien's idea that we, as story-tellers, are sub-creators who work within God's own acts of creation. If our stories point to deeper truths, it is because they take place within an even greater Story that is much bigger than ourselves. Without this sort of background, Edward Bloom's stories become little more than an artful exercise in denial, and in puffing himself up.

Still, the stories he tells are a visual and narrative delight, and the film's emphasis on marital fidelity is quite commendable. The film may be a mixed blessing, but there is much to appreciate here.

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Bonnie Hunt, who has often played the mother, big sister, or best friend in films like Beethoven, Jerry Maguire and her own directorial debut Return to Me, is such a charming, winning actress and comedian that you want her movies to do well. Alas, Cheaper by the Dozen, in which she plays the wife of Steve Martin and the mother of 12 children, is a mostly unfunny comedy in which genuine family dynamics are overwhelmed by broad farce -- children throwing axes into closet doors, etc.

Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt with brood in Cheaper by the Dozen.

Given the Catholic flavour that Hunt's films often have, you might think this family is so big for faith-related reasons -- but the film doesn't pursue that angle. Hunt's character makes a passing reference to "saying the rosary" when she rattles off a list of other activities her eldest daughter (Piper Perabo) could be engaged in rather than kissing her live-in boyfriend (Ashton Kutcher), and Martin's character says the girl and her lover are not allowed to sleep together when they visit because "this is a G-rated house" -- but that's about as far as that goes.

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One good Inkling-inspired movie deserves another!

Now that Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings has brought fame and fortune to the film crews of New Zealand, The Dominion Post in Wellington reports that Shrek co-director Andrew Adamson -- a native Kiwi himself -- will start working there this month on an adaptation of C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Weta Workshop, which brought Gollum and numerous other creatures to life for Jackson's films, has already begun developing the make-up and effects for the Narnia film, which reports say is budgeted at about US$170 million.

Although there are seven books in Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, the Post says the film-makers are currently planning to make only five films -- but it's a safe bet the studio probably won't greenlight any sequels until they have seen how well the first film does.

Can a movie version of Charles Williams' War in Heaven be far behind?

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From the extra definite article in the film's title to the digital recolouring of actor James Caviezel's eyes, Mel Gibson is still tweaking The Passion of the Christ, his film about the death of Jesus. Gibson and his movie continue to be dogged by controversy over its allegedly anti-Semitic elements, but he recently showed a rough cut of the film to Billy Graham and Pope John Paul II, both of whom gave it their thumbs-up.

"The film is faithful to the Bible's teaching that we are all responsible for Jesus' death, because we all have sinned," said Graham, while the pope kept his response to five simple words: "It is as it was."

Jewish response to the film remains mixed. Rabbi A. James Rudin, the American Jewish Committee's senior advisor on interreligious affairs, has said that Jewish leaders should not boycott the film outright but, rather, should use the film to explain how depictions of Christ's death have stoked anti-Semitism in the past.

Dennis Prager, who has worked closely with conservative Christians, also expressed reservations. "I cannot say that I am happy this film was made," he wrote. "Nevertheless, if the vast majority of Christians and Jews of goodwill try hard to understand what film the other is watching, some good can yet result."

For their part, The New York Post obtained a bootleg copy of the rough cut and showed it to five people, four of whom -- a Catholic priest, a rabbi, a professor of religion, and Post film critic Lou Lumenick -- did not care for it in its present form. Even the Baptist layperson who liked the film agreed with the others that it dwelled on the violence too much.

At least we now know how long we'll have to wait before we can evaluate the film for ourselves. Newmarket, the distributor behind such indie hits as Whale Rider and Memento, plans to release the film on Ash Wednesday (February 25).