With the resurgence of the Star Wars franchise, and the plethora of new films that are expanding upon this famous world, people have been reminiscing about the cast of the old days, and where the actors like Harrison Ford, Natalie Portman, and Ewan McGregor are now. Ewan McGregor has some interesting roles coming up, like his voice-over for the Cricket in Guillermo del Toro’s new adaptation of Pinocchio. But readers may be surprised that this is not the first time he has played a starring role in a fantastical, magical realism film.
Back in 2003, he played the lead in the film Big Fish. This is a larger than life story about a man who had extraordinary adventures in his youth, and went on a journey that took him through enchanted lands and intriguing situations on the path to finding true love.
There are many otherworldly elements to the story, including a giant who doesn’t want to eat people but is just too hungry to resist, a set of conjoined twins who help him navigate the in’s and outs of circus life, a village Utopia akin to heaven, where people come and then are so enchanted that they never leave again, and most importantly, the titular big fish, who had never before been captured, but was finally tamed by the protagonist with the use of his gold ring. But ultimately, the heart of the story is about the bond between father and son, and how, as you grow older, you realize the things that are truly important in life.
Edward Bloom, whose stories are famous in every town in Alabama, appears to have lived an extraordinary life, a life that is so impossibly rich and adventurous that it’s almost too good to be true… at least in the eyes of his son, Will Bloom. Will grew up riveted by his father's stories, hanging onto every word as children do, believing that his father had done everything, knew everything, and was quite possibly the most amazing man who had ever lived. Unfortunately, as Will grew older, and people began to question the ins and outs of his father’s tall tales, the young man began to question whether they were really true or simply grandiose fabrications. This put a strain on his relationship with Ed, and the two spent several years not talking after a big fall out one night.
Edward suddenly ends up back in his son’s path when he discovers that he is ill, and his wife Sandra Bloom (played by American Horror Story’s iconic Jessica Lange) asks the two to reconcile. Will hopes that finally, as his father is nearing the end, they may be able to be honest with each other, and that he might finally hear the true stories that he has been craving since his doubts began. But Edward insists that he has never told his son a lie, which prompts Will to set out on a journey to discover the reality for himself.
This is when he meets the woman in the crooked house, played by Harry Potter star Helena Bonham Carter, and the audience finds out both that she was once in love with Will’s father who could not return her feelings, and that she looks remarkably like the witch in Edwards old stories, who was rumored to be able to show a vision of how people would die in her blind eye. This encounter only leaves Will more confused, as he finds out that elements of his father’s story match up with what Jenny (Helena Bonham Carter’s character) tells him.
The story takes a heartbreaking turn, when old Edward is rushed into hospital, and Will sits at his bedside, waiting for the inevitable. At this time, a kindly doctor tells Will about how he was really delivered, and it didn’t have anything to do with the Big Fish and the gold ring, as his father had always told him. But as Ed comes near to death, he is frightened, and he tells Will that this isn’t how it is supposed to end, and Will knows that what his father needs in that moment, more than anything, is a fantastical story to distract himself from the end. Will takes him on one final adventure, out of the hospital, past all of his old friends from his tales, and transports him to the river, where Edward passes away, and turns into the Big Fish himself.
It is only at Edward Bloom’s funeral, when Will meets all the people from Edward's stories, that he realizes that all of his father’s stories were, in fact, true, just not necessarily in the way that he told them. The conjoined twins, are actually two separate, identical twins. The giant in indeed a very tall man, though not quite as tall as at first believed, and the circus leader is also a real person, and an old friend of Ed’s.
And at this, the message of the film is revealed, that Edward Bloom did honestly love a remarkable and fantastic life, and that his stories were also embellished with a little magic here and there to make life sound more wonderful and exciting for his son, and that in the end, it wouldn’t have mattered is the stories had all been lies anyway because what really made the two characters reconcile was the love that they had for each other.