My grandfather was a great storyteller. You never knew what was a complete fabrication and what contained masked truth. This film is a lot like that, but not as personal. Lots of star power, but too episodic… not much of a story and not much to hold the viewer’s attention other than serial fantasies. Burton has done better.

The flights of fancy into the father’s early life got old in a hurry and slowed the real plot down to a crawl.

My review at Epinions.

This is probably the most mature movie Tim Burton has ever made. And when I say mature, I don’t mean it in the opposite of “juvenile” or “youthful”, because there are plenty of those moments in the movie. But for a fantastical movie that features giants, witches, and impossibly large fish, it definitely has a solid, thoughtful center: the father-son dynamic. A son feels alienated and isolated from his father because of his immature “fish tales”, he has to come to terms with his father’s life and his stories if he ever wants to really grow up. Ewan MacGregor and Albert Finney are a pair of show-stealers, Jessica Lange does a lot with a very small part, and Tim Burton finally uses his tics and trademarks to tell a story that is obviously his and still stands head and shoulders above most of them. This is probably my favourite of his films after Edward Scissorhands, and I think it would probably benefit from repeated viewings: there’s so much there, visually, I don’t think you could catch it all the first time.

I just really couldn’t warm to this movie. It’s really one man’s tall tale of his life, but just rather saccharine for my tastes, and I just wasn’t impressed with the stories, tall or otherwise.

My favorite films, books, shows, etc. are those which exhalt that lovely hiding place between fantasy and reality . . . where human beings are safe and strong.

This is such a wonderful, uplifting movie, with cross between an old movie feel, and a fantasy, such as labyrinth.

Cause Tim Burton ROCKSTHEHOUSE!!

i’m not a huge tim burton fan, nor do i particularly like helena bonham carter, but i really liked this movie. it was cute and sweet.