When the conversation turns to Tim Burton’s best movies, the same titles tend to surface: Beetlejuice, his Batman movies, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. Even The Nightmare Before Christmas usually gets a mention, despite being directed by Henry Selick. Less likely to enter the discussion is Big Fish, Burton’s 2003 fantasy about a father whose life sounds too extraordinary to believe.
That’s a shame, because it’s some of his very best work. It's also available to stream for free right now on YouTube and Tubi. Big Fish follows Will Bloom (Billy Crudup), a man trying to reconnect with his semi-estranged, dying father, Edward (Albert Finney).
Edward has spent a lifetime telling stories about his younger self, played by Ewan McGregor in a series of elaborate flashbacks. His adventures involve an 11-foot-tall giant, conjoined twin singers, and a seven-foot-long catfish. Will has heard them all before.
What he wants, while there’s still time, is to meet the man behind the tall tales. That tension gives Big Fish its emotional weight, but the movie’s immediate appeal is its charm. Much of that comes from the two actors playing Edward.
McGregor and Finney don’t particularly resemble each other, yet they’re completely convincing as the same man at opposite ends of his life. McGregor’s Edward is a kind, talkative dreamer with seemingly bottomless confidence. He’s handsome and knows how to hold an audience, but never comes across as especially cocky or self-important.
You understand why people gravitate toward him, and why so many would happily follow him into an adventure. Arriving between the latter two Star Wars prequels and two years after Moulin Rouge!, the role makes excellent use of McGregor’s movie-star charisma. Finney brings a different quality to the older Edward.
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