Sunday, December 28, 2014

Big Eyes (2014)

Kicking off for the 600s of my reviews, the latest Tim Burton movie that I saw yesterday with my friend Blaine, Big Eyes.

Plot: Margaret Keane is a very talented painter who specializes in paintings of children with big, emotional eyes. Her work starts to become popular, but her husband Walter takes the credit for her paintings and uses them to become a national celebrity. So Margaret is conflicted with whether or not to allow Walter to keep lying and still make the painting for him.

I went to see this movie with Blaine with some fairly high expectations with the mere concept of Tim Burton working on a project that is so different from the majority of his work. And ultimately, the movie didn't disappoint me. What Tim Burton had to give with this film was very well acted and pretty colorful story about art, and the need to find your identity. As I said, this is a completely different film from Burton's usual work, and knowing that going into the film helped me appreciate the film not just as a story, but also as an art piece from Burton. That's not to say I dislike Tim Burton's art style as a film maker. Far from it - he's gives us some great films in the past. But I find it very admirable of Burton to go out of his comfort zone to try something so new. And he surprisingly goes all out in doing it: new kind of story, new setting, new genre, and especially a new cast. I thought for sure there would be at least one or two actors who have worked with Burton before but surprisingly - with Blaine to confirm it, being the giant Tim Burton fan that he is - all the actors where new. And what great performances the actors gave. Christoph Waltz was entertaining as usual - heck, what made his performance stronger was knowing that some of the familiar traits to his acting where things that the person his character was based off of did. And Amy Adams did an excellent job in giving us Margret and guiding us through everything that she is going through over the events of the movie. I also liked how the colors sometimes really stood out and made it seem like the background would look like a painting in a way. If I had any problem with the movie, I would say that the climax, while enjoyable, didn't feel very suspenseful. I won't say how, but the all around process of the climax seemed a little to easy. Also, I feel like we didn't get enough of a background of who Margaret was before she met Walter. Granted, maybe there really wasn't much to tell about that time and if it was ever relevant to her paintings like I kinda suspected it would, but it still feels like there's something missing.

And that's my review for Big Eyes. It's a very nice, enjoyable film that I really appreciate Tim Burton making. Heck, I'll add that it's so different that the only thing that it even hints that it's a Tim Burton film, is his name in the beginning credits. That aside, it's an enjoyable movie with a great cast, and a good story that is worth talking a look and admiring both as a film and as a change of pace from one particular artistic film maker.

Rating: 70%

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