review of Big Fish

What are the aspects or elements in the movie Big Fish which make it suitable or unsuitable to be enjoyed by young adults?

Big Fish is a movie that tells the audience of a son whom seek the truth from his storyteller father, trying to talk his father into telling him the real story instead of the incredible tales. The tales which most of them seems to be spiced up with fantastic details that Will, the son finds it too good to be true had made the son to think his father is not telling him the truth about his life thus making him not really knowing his own father. However, at the end of the story, Will finally able to grasp the concept that his father had tried to pass over to him all these years, which is to be able to pass on the stories to his own son with him believing it himself.

Is this story a beautiful story? Yes indeed, however personally I do not think the aspects or elements is entirely suitable to be enjoyed by young adults.

Firstly, the tales themselves are too much to be crammed into one storyline. When I watched the movie, towards the end I was wondering one thing and one thing only; “oh, and now what..??” There are too much tales jammed into one single storyline, like few pieces of tuna in one small can. My poor memory got confused which tale happens first and later, and switching the timeline back and forth makes it worse for me. The rationale of the switching timeline is understandable, because it is told by someone to someone else. Still, flashbacks should be in lighter mode with less to be memorized.

Secondly, fantasy is not always beautiful and real life is not that dull. This movie has shown too much black and boring color in the real life of Will and Edward Bloom but too colorful and fun for the fantasy. It is not a very good idea to be embedded into the head of the young adults. Psychiatrists had said that by escaping too much into fantasy and running from reality, people nowadays are becoming more and more dependent on others to tell them which one is which. Escapism of reality is unhealthy but this is what happens in this movie. Even though in the end Will discovered that his father’s life is indeed incredible, but the young audience might have different understanding about fantasy and wishful thinking. One wise person in my life had once told me to dream but not to dwell in dreaming. Dream gives people hopes and ambition, good pictures of life but sometimes dream sunk people into believing that it can help them escape problems in reality. This movie is a nice fantasy itself but when it ends with real fantasy, for me it is not a good lesson. Fantasy should stay where they are, as fantasies.

Thirdly, the themes are a little bit figurative. Well, the reconciliation of father and son is highlighted enough but other themes lay scattered. Great young adult thinkers may be able to grasp the ideas but not the less bothered ones. Themes such as to fight for love, like how Edward struggled to get to know his first sight love, Sandra Templeton, to be positive thinking as Edward did even in the midst of war somewhere in Asia, to be brave to anyone including the Giant Karl and few others are depicted in events I find hard to believe and therefore seems to have no positive effect on me. As I mentioned before, everything is crammed into one single movie making it one of the heaviest movie I ever watched. I might have liked the movie if I watched it for the second time but as the question goes, how can we make those young adults to watch it for the second time if it failed to catch them the first time around? The only thing that may have gotten into their head is that to believe their parents no matter what they were told and to pass on the stories as if those were their own. Honestly, this movie is a very good movie to educate human to appreciate families and everyone else we have around us but it cannot make a 16 year old boy to understand the whole point pondered in this movie. Deep understanding will find this movie as a masterpiece of Tim Burton and a good piece of writing by Daniel Wallace. I am not having negative thinking about young adult nowadays, they are instilled with a lot of knowledge and some of them are able to think maturely at a very young age but going to the mostly normal adolescence like how I grew up few years ago, I do not think it is a suitable movie to make me appreciate and understand life.

As a conclusion, as a fantasy comedy movie, I find this movie is fun to be enjoyed but as someone whom had learnt to look at things and critique, I think this movie is “crammed”, abusing the function of fantasy and too figurative to be fully enjoyed by young adults. To determine suitability or unsuitability of a material is beyond me. I have not enough experience to determine that as there are more to learn and discover especially when it comes to deal with children and young adults. They are God’s magnificent creatures, unique and hard to be figured thus need experts to get to them. If subliminal message is what is delivered in this movie to help and assist them to understand life, then maybe it is indeed a good material, chosen based on the characters and themes, moods and point of views of the characters as well as other important elements centered by the author and director. My point of view is based solely on the first and the last time I watched it therefore I hope my judgment is rather forgiven had I pondered harsh opinions.