The roster of films viewed and awaiting viewing this January alone (of which more soon in these pages) allows for hope that the crop of 2015 will surpass in quality that of the previous year. For instance, there was no Tim Burton film released last year.
Big Eyes is Tim Burtons's 17th feature film, and The MacMahonian's honours his filmography with completist fandom. Tim Burton's style is immediately recognizable: a distinct universe where unresolved childhood emotions a la Steven Spielberg are given Hollywood-goth treatment, the recipe for which, developed over 30 years, is Burton's and Burton's alone.
Big Eyes is Tim Burton's 1st film to be based on a true story, that of painter Margaret Keane (Amy Adams), very popular in the 50s and 60s for big-eyed (hence the title) children paintings dismissed by the critical establishment as kitsch, and whose work was fraudulently claimed by her husband Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) until she spilled the beans in a radio interview in 1970.
Someone once wrote perceptively that Tim Burton's overarching theme is “the revenge of the nerd”, and Big Eyes is another variation on that theme – although the nerd in question, one suspects, is not only or even mainly the unjustly usurped painter who gets her day in court, but also or even mostly the hapless usurper played by Christoph Waltz, who, as usual, steals the movie with his signature antics, and whose Walter ends up penniless but unrepentant, possibly in delusional denial. In spite of the dramatic events portrayed, Big Eyes is disarmingly light, to which the bright, saturated cinematography (by Bruno Delbonnel, who also worked with Tim Burton in Dark Shadows, 2012) contributes decisively.
The best of Tim Burton was last seen back in 2003-7, when we were uninterruptedly marvelled by the Big Fish-Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-The Corpse Bride-Sweeney Todd golden series. Whether Big Eyes is in that league I hesitate to proclaim, but it is certainly a (perhaps minor) gem.