By SETH HYNES
Big Eyes (M)
Starring: Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Krysten Ritter
BIG Eyes is a carefully-crafted portrait of a heartbreaking art scandal and a fantastic redemption for director Tim Burton.
The film is based on the life of painter Margaret Keane (Amy Adams), whose husband Walter (Christoph Waltz) took credit for her world-famous paintings for over a decade.
Amy Adams (in the role that earned her a Golden Globe) is riveting as Margaret Keane. She superbly conveys the melancholy that defined Margaret’s work, and her despair and inner conflict at her husband’s deception is palpable.
Margaret is trapped in a lie she is partially complicit in, and her journey of mustering up the courage to break free is an enthralling display of subtle power.
Christoph Waltz is one of the best, most versatile actors of his generation, and his persona as Walter can best be described as poisonously charming.
For the past decade or more, Tim Burton has been (with some exceptions) creatively stagnant, endlessly re-hashing and wearing out his quirky style. But Big Eyes marks his return to Big Fish-level clarity.
Big Eyes is steady, precise, poignant, very funny in the right places and appealingly stylised, with the fanciful flourishes complementing the film’s artistic focus (rather than overwhelming everything, like in Alice in Wonderland or Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).
Absorbing, tense and impeccably acted, Big Eyes is one of the most polished biopics in several years.
