Director: Tim Burton
By Alex Watson
Tim Burton makes an overdue appearance on Closer to the Edge this week. His last effort Dark Shadows, was met with a somewhat mixed response due to what seemed to be a confusing approach to his normal zany humor. This week he depicts the real life battle between real life husband and wife Walter and Margaret Keane over art that stunned 1960's California in his movie, Big Eyes.
When Margaret Ulbrich (Amy Adams) flees her marriage and relocates her daughter to San Francisco, she quickly falls in love with charming painter Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz). But soon she finds herself trapped in a nightmare when her beloved Big Eyes paintings are passed off as Walter's own work! Although her life in now financially lucrative, Margaret is living the ultimate lie.
Big Eyes is a sound and well made effort by Tim Burton but sadly it lacks his trademark humor and as a result hardly feels like vintage work by this man. The story is one that easily appeals to Burton's nature in that it is about two people finding something wonderful in an era where female art was typically frowned upon. In fairness, the script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski does succeed in capturing the snobbishness and the sexiest feel of the times, but doesn't feel nearly meaty enough to make any sufficient ground.
Centrally the relationship between Walter and Margaret is the element that fires the movie and when we first meet him, there is a massively cute feel and it isn't hard to see how exactly he sweeps the lady off her feet. When the cracks inevitably appear, we gradually clue in that this man is little more than a silver tongued trickster. Through his deceit he has now forced Margaret into a corner she will have trouble fighting out of! The potential conflict and controlling nature of their relationship never fully convinces and at times the antics boarder on cartoonish, such as Walter chasing mother and daughter through the house with matches! This feel gradually derails the film and shortens its ability to rise up.
The problem with Big Eyes seems to be that the story is lacking in a key function because it feels uncertain whether it is a comedy, a drama or both? Burton shows touches of his old self such as a borderline terrifying sequence when Margaret sees her painting come almost to life in a supermarket! However, there is not enough of his trademark to elevate this film to where it needs to be. Also although throughout the film we see Margaret painting her large eyed portraits, we never fully learn what has inspired her to paint in this style apart from being told "The eyes are the windows of the soul"
Amy Adams does succeed in giving an honest and emotionally relevant portrayal of Margaret Keane. Through her soft spoken and gentle nature, she makes it thoroughly convincing just how this woman was duped into living a life of duplicity. One of the more consistent actress of today, Adams shows how she can single handled change a film for the better. Disappointingly the movie is let down by an over the top and almost hammy performance by the normally excellent Christoph Waltz. Although he succeeds in the manipulating side of Walter, his cringing cross examination of himself on the stand gives Burton's film a bad after taste.
It may not be Burton's great piece of work, but Big Eyes is still a movie that is worth viewing because it is incredible how one lie can define the course of somebody's life.
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