The Blabbering Inferno: BIG EYES. REVIEWED.

Big Eyes (2014)

Rating- 12A

Running Time- 1 hour 46 minutes

Directed by- Tim Burton

Written by- Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski

Big Eyes is the true story of a woman who painted portraits with big eyes who married a man who told big lies to get a big prize (money and fame), his betrayal made her wish he would big die and she began to big cry but not before saying her big byes and cutting all big ties. Now in Hawaii she became big wise and sued the big guy for all of his big lies, the jury ruled in her favour and she let out a big sigh.

The story of Margaret and Walter Keane is a fascinating one and this film presents it in a charming way but there were some scenes that detracted from the interesting nature of the overall piece simply because they were so dull. The reason for this is simple: there wasn’t enough content for a 105 minute long movie. The story may be intriguing but there just isn’t enough there for feature length film. I feel that the only way the film could have maintained consistent captivation is by straying away from fact and adding some fiction to it. Space Jam (1996) did this and I don’t think anyone can argue, with any real conviction, that it wasn’t anything but successful. The creators of Space Jam realised that, while the story of Michael Jordan retiring from basketball to become a baseball player only to then change his mind and go back to basketball is an interesting one it is not worthy of its own film, so naturally they added the Looney Tunes to the story and it became 88 minutes of pure inspiration and exhilaration. Big Eyes should’ve taken note.

But because of the lack of a sufficient plot the film relied heavily on the performances of its two leads and they didn’t disappoint. Amy Adams was brilliant; she managed to capture Margaret Keane’s assured love for art as well as her overall frailty as a person, which becomes more prominent as the film progresses. But, as in pretty much every film he’s been in, Christoph Waltz completely steals the show.

He continues to add life to a film that had all but run out of any meaningful story and goes some way to completely redeeming the film of all its faults with the final scene of the movie. Here he is at his comedic best as he insanely tries to defend himself in court against his wife in a futile attempt to maintain his false dignity.

In the end though, it is not enough to save the film from its faults and while it is entertaining in parts it is outweighed by the remainder that is little more than filler.