Big Eyes review

Adam: Hello! It's been a while, how are you? Gosh, you look great.

Anyway, I wrote a movie review for the first time in months. No, it wasn't The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies believe it or not. It was Big Eyes, the new film from my first ever "favorite director" Tim Burton. Read it below!

--

Big Eyes Review

As long as I’ve been watching movies, I’ve been a fan of Tim Burton’s work. When I was young, I loved the quirky color schemes, the macabre visuals, and the dark, but somehow still friendly, tones and messages of his films, and as I’ve grown older, the same is still true but with a further appreciation of the way he writes and shoots them. But I’ve also learned over the years that many people have grown tired of the unnaturally skinny and pale characters, Danny Elfman’s bouncy scores, and Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter being cast in almost every single one of his films since 2005 (and a few before that as well), and no matter how well the movies do at the box office, critics and moviegoers continue to sling unnecessary venom at the crazy-haired director.

Here’s a brief reminder of Burton’s director filmography from the past ten years: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Alice in Wonderland, Dark Shadows, and Frankenweenie. Of those six films, the only one I’ve heard the general consensus consider “a good movie” is Corpse Bride (which is a fantastic movie, and one of his best films hands down). Most people with whom I discuss Burton will tell me he “sold out” or “just can’t make movies anymore” or “just does the same thing over and over” or “will never top Edward Scissorhands” or the one that makes my skin crawl, “he only casts Johnny Depp and Helena Bon-whatever, I guess he just can’t find anyone else to be in his crappy movies besides his best friend and his [now ex] partner ugh no other director does that.” (Many other directors do that, i.e. Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino, Judd Apatow…to name a few, and there’s nothing wrong with working with a group of people with whom you have creative chemistry.) It seemed Burton was doomed to keep putting out movies only Hot Topic kids (and yours truly) would enjoy, but Christmas 2014 proved this is not the case.

Enter Big Eyes, a tale set in the 1960’s about a soft-spoken, modest artist (Amy Adams) who marries a charismatic man (Christoph Waltz) after she leaves her first husband. He paints realistic representations of the streets of Paris, and she creates beautiful melancholy children with massive eyes. They display their work at a club after the local art gallery turns them down (you see, modern art is the hip thing), and when the public desires her pieces over his, he takes credit for her work (“no one likes lady art”) until eventually everyone believes that he is the true artist. The tension rises and we watch this talented artist being controlled by a hollow husband that reaps ever-growing fame and fortune from her fruits.

The thing that initially struck me about this film as being drastically different from Burton’s other work was not the absence of Depp or Carter, nor was it the lack of stop motion or stripes or misshapen houses – it was the fact that I was bored. I’ve never been able to use “boring” as a compliment, but this was the first time I was watching a Tim Burton film and felt so stuck in reality that it felt a bit stale, and I was exhilarated somehow. However, when I realized I was feeling like this, I knew I wasn’t reading the film the right way. Burton is not a boring filmmaker, nor is he a gimmicky one (despite what the crowds may think), and I knew I had to dig a bit deeper. And then it hit me: this could be Tim Burton indirectly making a film about Tim Burton. Amy Adams’ character can be read as the “real artist Burton” and Christolph Waltz’ character can be read as “the sell out Burton” that everyone sees. Add in Adams’ daughter, her character’s inspiration, as a representation of Burton’s inspiration, and we have ourselves an intriguing meta film. The sell out artist suffocates the true artist to the point where no one knows what the truth is anymore, much like Tim Burton’s career over the past ten years. Once this clicked in my head as a possible reading, I couldn’t look away. It wasn’t just meta for Burton, but for anyone pursuing a life as an artist. Fame and fortune are the number one killers of artistic integrity, and this film captured that in a big way.

Now, if all this “meta” stuff isn’t really your thing, don’t worry. This movie, although a touch predictable, contains some excellent performances (particularly Amy Adams), beautiful colors, interesting shots, and a nice build of tension until the climax when everything gets wrapped up a little too quickly. It’s a good movie. But for those wanting to dig a bit deeper…it’s fantastic.

Big Eyes is not Tim Burton’s best film (though I’d probably rank it pretty high), nor is it a rebirth or redefinition, but it’s definitely one of the most surprising films of the year because of its lack of surprise, and for that, I must recommend it.