Big Eyes

"Espresso, what's that, like reefer?"

Tim Burton's signature gothic, often fantastical style has never particularly appealed to me. I haven't been sold by his reimagining of classic films, which in itself goes against my opinion on adaptations. However it's difficult not to appreciate some of his classics, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Big Fish etc. His latest film Big Eyes, a biopic about artist Margaret Keane, does away with many of the Burtonesque themes, with a cheerful opening act that thinly veils a story of duplicity and suppression.

In the mid-1950s, Margaret Ulbrich (Amy Adams) runs away from her husband, taking her daughter Jane (Delaney Raye) and her paintings with her to San Francisco. Her work is unlike any other, often portraying young children with over sized eyes. Whilst selling her paintings for loose change at an outdoor market, she meets Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz), a fellow artist, who takes great interest in her work. The two hit it off, getting married shortly after. Walter helps Margaret get her art recognised, although he starts to take credit for it, believing that nobody would be interested in paintings from female artists. Soon the Keane 'big eyes' paintings grow into an empire, but the real artist is being hidden from the world. 

Whilst Big Eyes has a completely different style to most of Burton's other films, he doesn't hold back from injecting stylistic choices all over the place. For instance, there are sections of the film that are shown on a TV, and these appear to have been shot with a fish-eye lens, not only to mimic the curved front of CRT televisions but also to draw the centre of the screen closer to the audience in quite a confronting way. There are other sections that seem very heavy-handed, almost hitting the wrong points in the overall narrative arc and becoming overly emotional. But all those points aside, Big Eyes presents a captivating story that's augmented with skillful portrayals.

Amy Adams is a tremendous actor who's played some great roles in recent years, and yet again here she breathes life into her character. Over the course of the film she's liberated, then suppressed, hesitant, angry, then empowered. It's a great representation of her range as an actor, and of the troubles that Margaret had to deal with. Danny Huston narrates and plays a journalist but doesn't really do much for the story, and Jon Polito looks the same now as he did in Miami Vice back in the 80s. Krysten Ritter, Jason Schwartzman and Terence Stamp add to what is already a very strong cast.

The many faces of Walter are perfectly articulated by Waltz, and his performance defines Big Eyes for me. One minute he's charming his way up the social ladder, the next he's explaining to Margaret just why her work is actually his. It may be over-the-top but it's a lively performance, which is what I always love about Waltz. Walter is more than just a liar though, his personality is fragmented. To some degree it's as if he actually believes that he painted the big eyes. Waltz grins his way through the film yet the inner complexities and deceptions that define his character radiate so obviously to the viewer that it's agonising to see how effective his dishonesty is. The dramatic irony leaves the viewer on an excruciating precipice, waiting for Margaret to reveal the secret to the world, to break free. It's here that Big Eyes is the most effective.

This isn't Burton's greatest accomplishment, and probably won't appeal as much to his hardcore fan base, but I'm glad that Margaret Keane's story got put onto the big screen, even if it is a little Hollywood. Adams and Waltz are fantastic.

Hitchcock

I am convinced that someone has built and is using a time machine. My evidence for this wild allegation is the movie Hitchcock. They must have gone back to 1960 and convinced Alfred Hitchcock to get in some odd shaped car and act in a film about the making of his most famous movie Psycho. It's either that or Anthony Hopkins is the best celebrity impersonator ever (or close enough until you hear the legendary Ralph Garman). Either of these ideas work for me.

The story behind Psycho was an amazing one. His last film North by Northwest was a huge success. But Alfred dreams of his younger days, when he and his wife Alma (Helen Mirren) were making experimental movies and pushing the boundaries of can and can't be shown on the silver screen. He is under contract for one more picture with Paramount. So in the search for the inspiration for his next movie, Hitchcock comes across Robert Bloch's novel Psycho. It is about the owner of a mysterious motel who murders most of the young female guests who enters it's doors. Hitch, as he is known in this movie, is smitten with the story, he has found the film that will push the envelope in many ways. However, he cannot get anyone to finance it. So, in a turn that makes me to consider him one of the original indie filmmakers, he mortgages his house and tightens his bootstraps to make one of the most ambitious films of his career. Ambitious only because the head of the US censor board (That 70s Show's Kurtwood Smith) finds the film to be abhorrent. So through the ups and downs of the production he finally is able to make a rough cut that is satisfactory, although it isn't any good.

Meanwhile, Alma finds herself drifting away from Alfred and wishes to pursue her own projects. She starts work on an adaption of her friends new novel. She works on this for a considerable amount of time before realising it is unadaptable. This is just about the time when Hitch finds that he needs to re-edit his rough cut and Alma comes to the rescue. They spend a considerable amount of time in the editing room and end up coming out with a masterpiece. This time round the film is much more to Hitch's expectations, although only two theatres agree to show it, so they must rely on word of mouth. Luckily for them it is a success with the audience.

The cast in this movie is great. Anthony Hopkins, as I said earlier was a dead ringer for the master of suspense, and Helen Mirren were perfect as always. But they real joy of the cast is in the supporting roles. Scarlett Johansson is perfect as Janet Leigh (also known as Jamie Lee Curtis' mum, something I only recently discovered), the leading lady made famous by the iconic shower scene. Another doppelganger in this movie was James D'Arcy as Anthony Perkins, who plays the eponymous psycho. This guy was so convincing as Perkins, he had all the nervousness of the actor and character down-pat. Also a surprising supporting role came from a highly unrecognisable Toni Collette as Hitch's assistant. Jessica Biel also gets a bit part as Vera Miles, Hitch's former leading lady.

There are some interesting "dream" sequences in which Hitch's experience making this film is likened to that of the story Ed Gein, the serial killer caught two years prior to the making of the film and the model behind the character of Norman Bates. Here his played by Michael Wincott (we all remember him from Alien: Resurrection, surely).

Verdict: I found this movie to wonderfully enjoyable. I love Psycho and I find it to be terrifying (it's 52 years old as well). I also like to see movies about how Hollywood worked in it's golden age and this is no exception. Look out for a great reference to his next film, The Birds.