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Tim Burton is revered for the fantastic, mystical worlds he creates as the backdrop to his often eerie films: Beetle Juice (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Sleepy Hollow (1999) — and not forgetting 1989's Batman — are all testament to his visual talent. Who better, then, to direct the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 1971) than this visual impresario? A question, however, has always loomed concerning his ability as a story-teller and with Big Fish we see an attempt to tell several tales at once in the usual visually imaginative style. The result, though, is a disjointed affair whose content is, as ever, surpassed by the cinematography.

The plot is relatively simple: as he is about to die, Edward Bloom exaggerates one last time the many fabulous stories of his life to his son. As he retells these stories from his bed, the viewer is taken back in time to see the events as they happened and meet some of the fantastic characters involved. This constant moving back and forth between the present and the past becomes an obstacle to Burton, whose remedy it appears to be to neglect the overall flow of the story in favour of smaller, stand-alone chapters. Otherwise, how else is it possible to maintain a unified stance across a time span so long it requires three actors to portray the lead character? Big Fish is once again to suggest that Burton is preoccupied with the worlds he creates instead of the stories which occur in them. It remains to be seen if he can tell the story of Charlie and his golden winning ticket amidst the world that Willie Wonka/Burton has created.

Directed by Tim Burton • imdb and amazon

Tags — Film