ENTERTAINMENT

BIG FISH (Columbia) Genre: Fantasy Released: December, 2003 Director: Tim Burton Starring: ...Ewan McGregor Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Alison Lohman and Jessica Lange Official Movie Website Columbia/Sony

This is a smart fantasy that reawakens the child in all of us without ever insulting our intelligence. Within this fantasy- rooted-in-reality film created by the one of a kind Tim Burton we are treated to Siamese twins, a witch, a giant, a werewolf, a hidden creepy town, a secret mission, a huge fish, and a bank robbery gone wrong.

The importance of storytelling and how it's necessary to have an element of mystery and magic in this cold, cynical world that we live in is one of the main themes to this film. Family and really knowing your parents is an emotional note that also lives within this film.

We find the main character played by Billy Crudup at his dad's sick bed trying to fathom this man who has spent his life telling tall tales and his frustrated son has no idea who he really is. You can feel the lonely, sadness and even anger that he has felt his whole life as he struggles to figure out if his father has ever told him anything that is true. All he has are the fantastic tall tales that his father has spent his life telling him and he is desperate to get to know his father before its too late. It’s a beautiful fairy tale of a film that everyone should see. You are destined to leave the theatre believing just a little in the power of the imagination.

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by JAYNE RAE