"Big Eyes"

Title: Big Eyes
Director: Tim Burton
Writer: Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski
Category: biography, Drama
Duration: 106 min
Rate: 

"The eyes are the window to the soul...eyes are how I express my emotions"

For this movie I had great expectations. The idea of Tim Burton's unique vision of the world expressed through Margaret Keane's life and art was the perfect combination to tell this story. However, even thought Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz gave a great performance and both portrayed and understood the essence of this two real person on the screen, there was still something missing and the script wasn't incisive enough.

The story is based on the life of the famous painter Margaret Keane and how her talentless husband and business man, Walter Keane, decided to exploit her talent and her notorious paintings "Big Eyes" by publicly taking ownership of them and claiming that he was the one painting them.

In this movie Tim Burton could have played more with the concept of the "Big Eyes" and what they represent for Margaret, using his signature style and his love for the weird and unusual to highlight their importance in the artist's life. Instead, he decided to use them differently, just to represent the disappointment that Margaret was feeling because she was lying to everyone and especially to her daughter, missing the opportunity to employ them as a powerful visual tool that could have assisted the weak lines in the script and improve them.

What impressed me instead was the decision to shoot the movie using vivid and bright colours. The result was impeccable and it gave the audience the idea of watching a painting come to life instead of a movie.

Another positive note that made it possible for me to appreciate Big Eyes was Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams' portray of the main characters in the movie.

Adams was able to showcase Margaret's naivety, sensitivity and fragility as well as her strength and determination to always be truthful and honest with herself. Throughout the film it was easy to see how Margaret was evolving. Adams used her whole body and soul in this performance, losing herself in Margaret and showing her flows not only with her voice or facial expressions, but also with her body, changing her posture along with the events of her life.

Christoph Waltz, Adams co-star and one of my favourite actors in the industry, once again used his chameleonic talent to become Walter Keane, a leech who exploits his wife's talent without caring for anything else apart from making money and becoming famous. He is a fraud who is only able to steal other people's gifts and make them his own.  Even though Christoph's role was a supporting one, he was the perfect actor to compliment and stand beside Amy Adams. Both deeply understood their characters and gave justice to their story.

All in all Big Eyes is an enjoyable film, however, it is also a movie that had a lot of potential, unfortunately this time Tim Burton wasn't brave and bold enough to express it in its entirety.

Till next time,

Fred

Here the Trailer: