Big Eyes (2014) [Blu-ray]
Biography | Drama

From the Academy Award winning team that brought you Ed Woods, Big Eyes focuses on the artistic coupling of Margaret (Amy Adams) and Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz). Walter Keane became a worldwide celebrity and talk show fixture in the 1950s after he pioneered the mass production of prints of big-eyed kids, and used his marketing savvy to sell them cheaply in hardware stores and gas stations across the country. Unfortunately, he claimed to be the artist. That role was played by Margaret, his shy wife. She generated the paintings from their basement and Walter's contribution was adding his signature to the bottom. The ruse broke up their marriage and led to a divorce and a dramatic courtroom battle to prove authorship of the paintings.

Storyline: In San Francisco in the 1950s, Margaret was a woman trying to make it on her own after leaving her husband with only her daughter and her paintings. She meets gregarious ladies' man and fellow painter Walter Keane in a park while she was struggling to make an impact with her drawings of children with big eyes. The two quickly become a pair with outgoing Walter selling their paintings and quiet Margaret holed up at home painting even more children with big eyes. But Walter's actually selling her paintings as his own. A clash of financial success and critical failure soon sends Margaret reeling in her life of lies. With Walter still living the high life, Margaret's going to have to try making it on her own again and re-claiming her name and her paintings. Written by Anne Campbell

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, April 8, 2015 -- There's a sly little bit of double meaning in Director Tim Burton's for-him "untraditional" biopic Big Eyes. Not only does the title reference, obviously, Painter Margaret Keane's signature artistic detail -- her subject's oversized eyes -- but it also hints at her husband Walter's greed, the characteristic not physically obvious but certainly understood, seeing that he's blinded to everything but the dollar signs in his eyes and not the bigger picture of life, love, personal success, appreciation for another's work, or even a personal goal of self-improvement rather than the underhanded, never mind immoral, process of masquerading as something he is not, as an accomplished creator of work he cannot even reasonably replicate. The film's tale takes place in a time when men were expected to be the sole bread winners, the only creative types, the only ones people would take seriously as a serious contributing member of society, at least outside of the domestic role in the household. That timeframe certainly facilitates the story, but the broader subject of interest is the more intimate examination of, here, the contrasting examples of the human condition that, on one hand, guides a character to finally stand for what's right and, on the other, conditions someone to take whatever measures are necessary to find success in life, to reap without sowing, to enjoy the fruits of labor without actually performing the labor. Walter's was the ultimate in psychotic plagiarism, not simply stealing work but, essentially, forcing another into subservience to produce the work. Big Eyes is a rich, bountiful character study with an easy flow, a mildly humorous edge -- particularly as the truth gradually comes to light -- and proof that Tim Burton isn't a single-style niche filmmaker, though Big Eyes does have ooze with subtle Burton tradition.

Margaret (Amy Adams) and her daughter Jane (Delaney Raye) flee the suburbs and a bad relationship in search of a better life, going against the societal grain. She's a gifted artist and finds employment painting baby cribs, though her social status makes her something of an outcast. She peddles her paintings for next to nothing at arts and crafts fairs to supplement her income and gain at least modest exposure in the community. It's at one of those shows that she meets Walter (Christoph Waltz), a fellow artist who sweeps her off her feet. The two quickly wed and it seems like a match made in heaven. He manages to sell some of her work, but in the process, calls the work his own. She's not particularly pleased with that, but the draw of quick and easy money eases her anger. But only briefly. As her works -- all of which Walter claims he painted -- become massive hits and turn into a lucrative business, she grows to resent Walter and everything he stands for. Despite her displeasure, he doubles down and becomes a worldwide sensation, leaving her to paint in secrecy while he enjoys the benefits of stardom.

Big Eyes appears as, and in many ways is, a departure for Tim Burton both away from his trademark dark, moody, skewered, and generally nontraditional style that made him famous but obviously hasn't rendered him incapable of crafting a more traditionally styled story, as evidenced here. Burton's touch is certainly evident in the abundantly colorful set design, the mildly comedic undertones (which increase in frequency near the end when a character practically becomes a walking farce), and a central subject of the physical paintings that essentially serve as a reminder of his more traditional style with the disproportionate eyes signaling something obscure and unnatural but still molded as a viable form of expression and storytelling (for Margaret, the disproportionate eyes emphasize the inward character and were born of a time in her youth when she was rendered temporarily deaf). Burton does give the film an edge and injection of energy and levity where other filmmakers may have opted for a more intimate, stuffy interpretation of Margaret's story. Burton never minimizes it, just accentuates it with a lightly caricatured ebb and flow, in many ways reflecting Margaret's style whereby a traditional subject is given an untraditional feature. Burton, then, seems the perfect man to helm the project. He's comfortable in working with a more fluid and less rigid set of rules and an edgier and exploratory, rather than straight and classic, cinematic palette. He does the story justice, makes the necessary points, crafts an entertaining tale, and lends just enough artistic license to its superficialities, and some of its more intimate details, to make it his own without sacrificing the core integrity of the people and the story behind them.

Big Eyes also enjoys two wonderful lead performances. Amy Adams is fantastic in the role of Margaret. Adams injects a very real sense of self to the part, playing not an angry slave, for lack of a better term, but an increasingly remorseful spouse and unwilling partner in a scheme. While it's true that Margaret benefits from her work, her moral compass is straighter than that of her husband. She doesn't disapprove of the money -- not enough money to live on, anyway; she's not thrilled with a move into a house that's larger than the family's needs -- but she does disapprove of how it's earned. And it's not even just the fame she wants, either. She's not a narcissist, she just wants credit given where credit is due, and if that means a higher social status, then so be it. She's caught between a fascinating rock and hard place where principle trumps everything else but principle is forcibly hidden away in the attic. She's the total opposite of Walter in every way, and it's the resentment that she's used -- and a resentment and spitefulness and anger and hatred that grows with other revelations along the way -- and how she gradually turns the tables, that make her a rich, dynamic character and a supremely fascinating study in the human condition, particularly with her living, berating contradiction also at the center with her. Christoph Waltz's Walter is an interesting sort, a man who appears to only want what's best, says one too many things in the pursuit of a payday, and snowballs into an inescapable situation, lest the entire thing collapse. He's sly and smooth but all façade, so egomaniacal and so all-in on the lie that he cannot stand up to criticism that's aimed at something that he didn't even create. The character undergoes a number of permutations as the foundations begin to crack and desperation steps in for confidence. He'll do anything, say anything, almost will anything to keep the lie going, even if it means losing it all or humiliating himself along the way. Waltz is terrific in every scene, truly defining the psychotic underpinnings at every tentacular extreme while trying to maintain the semblance of normalcy in his center world that's built on an ever-evolving and expanding lie.

Big Eyes isn't just a biopic, it's an exploration of the human condition, what the human conditions means for different people, and how it's shaped and evolved over time. The film features two diametrically opposed characters brought together under false pretenses and the fallout of a little white lie that morphs into an uncontrollable avalanche of agony, for Margaret the agony of watching her success from afar and living a lie and for Walter also living a lie but also suffering through the agony of keeping it together with leaky patches and ineffective glue. Tim Burton is wonderful in the director's chair, the film a superficial departure for him to be sure but still in many ways classic Burton where it counts. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of Big Eyes features near reference quality video, solid audio, and a couple of extras. Highly recommended.

[CSW] -3.1- Amy Adams as Margaret Keane was a dignified, tentative, yet steely presence as the early '60s, pre-feminism artist wife of an untalented, huckster bon vivant who exploited Margaret's shaky confidence and the mores of the time to his advantage. The big negative is the otherwise talented Christoph Waltz as Walter Keane, who seems sorely miscast in this; every scene with him made me cringe. He seemed to be trying to modify or control his Austrian accent, with varying results, and his almost mime-like mugging and physical gestures were not only a weird juxtaposition next to Adams' quiet strength, they were like having a fly buzzing around your head when you're trying to concentrate while reading a gripping novel -- an annoying distraction that takes you out of the manufactured world for a few seconds. Waltz & Adams also have no chemistry, so, other than Margaret Keane marrying Walter Keane for some kind of "security" for her and her daughter, there seems no other reason she would have been attracted to such an obviously empty buffoon. There doesn't seem to be an attempt by Burton to delve into Walter's psychology, therefore he becomes a one-dimensional villain rather than a complicated liar with a possibly interesting backstory. Go ahead and see it for the visuals, the actually interesting story of the Keanes' lie, and for Amy Adams.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.


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