Big Fish par TheoC

Big Fish is probably one of my favorite movies of all time, it's a true odyssey through life in the genre of Forest Gump seen by Burton.
A man at the twilight of his life has his past revisited by his son by the tales he invented from his own life.

The blend of reality and fiction is the true appeal of this film. And I cannot think of a movie where it's done with such poetry.
Burton has always liked to mix fantastic elements with plain reality, and the exploration of the foreign is a major theme in his whole cinematography. Sometimes it's the magic character exploring the disappointing real world like in Edward Scissorhands. Other times it's a character like you and I thrown into a magic world like Beetlejuice or Charlie and Chocolate Factory. This is why this movie is in my opinion his most subtle one.
Here, the real world is the son, William Bloom, he has a successful and busy life in a Paris newspaper, he is rather pragmatic is unfazed by the tales of his father, having heard them a thousand time. As usual with Burton, he gets to explore the magical world of Edward Bloom's life, except it's not actual magic, it's life told by an optimistic's eyes. As he discovers more, he gets emotionally closer to his father and sees him more and more as the upstanding man he is, eventually culminating with Edward Bloom's death. Man tears were shed. It will make you call your parents.

The movie's focus as far as screen time is concerned is to narrate the past life of Edward but all of it only serves the present narrative of a father and son who finally understand each other. And so, as the father departs, he passes on his mantle. The life lesson Will gains from it feels much stronger than any Alice in Wonderland. This movie is so narratively good that I forgive the clunky special effects, they're not great but they are meant to support the narrative rather than impress, and in that regard, they do just fine.

I invite the dreamers out there who liked this movie to also check out Darren Aronofsky and Satoshi Kon who also explore this blend of fantasy and reality.