Big Fish

What would you do if your dad habitually told harebrained tales of wrestling huge fish, taming and befriending deformed giants, or escaping from behind enemy lines in Korea with Siamese twins? Well, if your father’s Edward (Albert Finney), in all probability you’d flee the nest at the earliest opportunity and disavow all contact with him. In this traditional Tim Burton–helmed absurdist fantasy—think Beetlejuice, Mars Attacks, et al.—son William Bloom (Billy Crudup) did just that, but now must return home to tend to his dying old man. Can pops and junior, after years without speaking, finally sort out their dormant differences? Similar to what the story of the prodigal son might resemble after getting Disney-fried, this heartwarming story occasionally embarks on aimless tangents. But it’s the fantastical flashbacks—in which Burton revisits each highly embellished yarn, with Ewan McGregor shining as the young Edward Bloom—that keep this fish afloat.