2003, PG-13, 110 minutes

Are you the type of movie fan that can actually become depressed when a favorite director or actor of yours makes a horrible film? Do you hope and pray that the buzz surrounding the film in question is false and that your time spent watching it will not end with you being too angry to even express your thoughts about the movie to friends that accompanied you to the viewing? Well, that’s how I am and that is exactly how I felt after watching Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes, a film so inane and absurd and so not Tim Burton that I feared that the director I love -- the man who created such fanciful tales as Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice -- had just involved himself as the man behind one of the worst films of 2001. But time heals all wounds, and Burton is back with the incredible Big Fish.

Billy Crudup plays Will Bloom, a man who has never felt very close to his father, but is drawn back to him when he gets a call that his dad, Edward Bloom (Albert Finney) is nearing the end of his life. Upon his return home, his father begins telling the tall tales that drove Will away in the first place. Using his wedding ring to catch the biggest fish in the lake, and helping a giant find a new life in the big city, are a few of his more elaborate stories, if not entirely true. Before long, Will attempts to separate the facts of his father’s life from the fiction, and he finds that it may not be possible, or necessary to separate them at all.

Finney and Crudup have great chemistry together as father and son, and they are backed up by Jessica Lange playing Ed’s wife, Sandra. Lange has the task of conveying the emotional pain that Sandra is feeling while still trying to show strength and optimism to her dying husband and their son, and that isn’t something many actresses could do convincingly, but she pulls it off with grace, and she is also downright beautiful to look at (I know that isn’t saying anything about her acting, but she is a gorgeous older woman). Ewan McGregor plays young Edward Bloom, and he appears in the monster load of the film’s screen time. Watching McGregor in Big Fish is like watching a 1950’s matinee idol. He’s got the dashing good looks, is quick on his feet, and a perfect smile, even when he’s taking a beating from the fiancé of the woman he plans to marry. This role seems almost tailor-made for him; another actor may have played it too cocky, or too “auw-shucks” wholesome, but McGregor plays it just right, as a man who can take on a battalion of Korean soldiers, but at the same time charm Siamese twins into helping him escape back to the girl of his dreams.

But no matter how well acted a fantasy film is, its no good if the visuals aren’t there, and Burton, along with all of the technical wizards behind this film, creates some truly dazzling visuals. Ed Bloom’s rather imaginative tales come alive with striking use of color by cinematographer Philippe Rousselot. Danny Elfman is also back for the ninth time as a Burton Collaborator, and the music is distinctly Elfman, very recognizable, but also unique (which is something that I think he lacks when he doesn’t work with Burton). Rounding out the beautiful camera-work and score is the art direction, which is as awe inspiring and magical as any you are likely to ever see.

To say that Burton is back is an understatement; he’s not only back, but he has grown as a storyteller. He has taken material not written by him (the film is based on the book of the same name by Daniel Wallace) and translated it to the screen using his amazing visual style. He also handles the segments of the film dealing with Edward Bloom’s illness and its emotional impact on his family with complete skill, making sure to not make it overly sentimental, while also not allowing it to become a footnote to the film's very imaginative storytelling sequences. It is a fantasy film for people who aren’t really big on fantasy films, and as far as having a wonderful time at the movies, Big Fish is a very big fish indeed.