When it catches fire, this great-looking movie offers hilarious diversions. And as father and son struggle toward a hard-won reconciliation, Big Fish reveals its beating heart.

| Mar 12, 2018

Big Fish really belongs to Albert Finney, who proves that when it comes to large performances there is no one who can quite match a British Shakespearean with good camera sense.

| Jan 9, 2018

Delightful, sad father-son story for teens and up.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 22, 2010

For the first time since Ed Wood, Burton has transcended his hermetically-sealed world and connected with wider concerns.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2006

The film doesn't so much reject history as selectively rewrite it to its own reactionary, even offensive ends. This might perhaps be just about tolerable were the film funny, illuminating, insightful or moving. It is not.

| Feb 9, 2006

As we grow older, we understand that these little white lies, this expansion of the truth, tells just as much about our parents as the actual non fiction-aided history does.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Dec 9, 2005

An ebullient tall tale about the magic of imagination and the power of myth.

| Original Score: A- | May 3, 2005

Overall, the film feels like it issues from a place Burton doesn't inhabit.

Full Review | Aug 7, 2004

This is a film that pasteurises both plot and sentiment with the efficiency of a Swiss milking machine.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 29, 2004

Burton shows the rivalry between father and son but not the rancor, which seems to fit with the film's calm lyricism. But the father-son conflict is meant as the dramatic crux, and a forceful actor would have given it some much-needed bite.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 16, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 24, 2004

Celebrates the whimsical spirit and imagination of a man whose only mode of relating to other people seems to be as props in the mythic narrative of his life.

| Original Score: C | Jan 9, 2004

A compelling look at the relationships between fathers and sons, and the child coming to terms with the parent's mortality.

| Jan 8, 2004

Feels like a sham, all tripe and not enough of Burton's gothic childlike mindset, and also infused with a heavy saccharine dose of big-hearted Life Lessons that drop from the screen like anvils made of rock candy.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 30, 2003

A long-winded indulgence in tear-and-a-smile whimsy.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Dec 26, 2003

A disappointingly dull thud of a fantasy.

| Dec 26, 2003

Somewhat like Forrest Gump on a high colonic.

| Dec 26, 2003

Burton's fabled imagination runs wild with this material, and Big Fish often achieves a whimsical, poetic beauty.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 25, 2003

Clocking in at two hours, it runs way too long for a flight of fancy, packs a couple of false endings, and, a first for Burton, feels flat and familiar, like recycled Ray Bradbury.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 25, 2003

For me, a Will who wishes she were an Edward, the movie inspired by the Daniel Wallace novel is a minor classic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 25, 2003