Film Review: Big Eyes (2014)
Tim Burton scales things back from his usual special effects-heavy genre films in this period drama about the painter Margaret Keane and her struggles with her treacherous husband after she finds commercial success with her paintings. The movie, a biopic, chronicles their relationship from the moment they meet to their bitter divorce and court battle over authorship of the paintings.
From the trailer this movie seems out of keeping with Burton’s other films - which have staked out a genre of their own in the current film landscape; indeed, “Burtonesque” is a commonplace adjective in film criticism for any movie that seems to be imitating Tim Burton’s unique aesthetic - but I think this one fits squarely in with what audiences have experienced before, it’s just set in the real world without the gothic conventions and dressing. But the exaggerated 50s aesthetic is still there. I would say it’s in the same zone in Burton’s filmography as Big Fish, which coincidentally also has the concept of quantitative degree as a theme. I’m actually surprised Burton has never directed a movie that takes place completely in this period. Even in his early films one can see the influence of 50s design trends - in Edward Scissorhands and even in his very first film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure. (The character of Pee-wee Herman was according to Wikipedia a homage to “low budget 1950s TV kiddie-shows such as Howdy Doody and Pinky Lee.”) In Edward Scissorhands one can see it in the perfectly mowed and manicured lawns and the oppressively proper behavior of Edward’s neighbors. In Big Eyes, however, the 50s aesthetic is used more nostalgically than to invoke a sense of banality.
Waltz perfectly portrays the smarmy and shrewd liar who will stop at nothing, even if it means humiliating himself on a national stage; and Adams the vulnerable creative who doesn’t have the nerve to sell herself and her work in the marketplace.
A good script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who previously collaborated with Tim Burton on the script for Ed Wood. Alexander and Karaszewski were originally set to direct but were replaced by Burton once the project moved to the Weinstein Company. (I wonder what that conversation was like: “Guys, great news. The movie’s getting made. The bad news is, you’re fired as directors!”) My only major criticism of the script is that it doesn’t concern itself with the history and psychology of either of the characters; mostly just the sociology: the interaction of galleries, the media, the civil justice system, and capitalism. Waltz gives a brilliant performance, but the most explanation you get for his behavior is that he “always wanted to be an artist but didn’t have the talent.” Which is in itself an interesting quandary to be explored in a movie; just maybe not this movie, as it probably would have resulted in a bloated final product. In its current edit, the film feels correct, with just enough scenes to tell the story, but that economy I think resulted in characters that feel not quite three-dimensional.
Another interesting piece of trivia is that this is Tim Burton’s first movie since Edward Scissorhands to not be edited by Chris Lebenzon. I think you can actually sense the difference; not in a bad way, just different. One peculiar editing quality that you see in this movie that isn’t present in Burton’s other films are crossfades between jump cuts, which tells me that in editing they were probably trying to speed things up and avoid the “bloat” I mentioned earlier.
