Big Eyes (2014)
Directed by Tim Burton
Written by Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski
Starring Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Krysten Ritter
Release Date December 25th, 2014
Published December 25th, 2014
Few people have a face as punch-able as Christoph Waltz. The supercilious grin he affects in "Inglourious Basterds" and brings back for his villainous role in Tim Burton's "Big Eyes" desperately invites one to pop him. Of course, it's not just his face that makes you want to poke him one, it's that arrogant manner, that superior tone and hardcore obnoxiousness. But, for a moment, just watch that jaw as he slips toward that grin and tell me you don't know exactly where you want your fist to land.
That's the power of Waltz, a man remarkably capable of making you loathe him, a capability that is both a blessing and a curse to the new movie "Big Eyes." On the one hand, Waltz is playing a real-life character quite worthy of a sock on the jaw. Art phony Walter Keane ho attempted to steal credit for his wife's remarkably popular art. On the other hand, Waltz's Keane is so loathsome I could barely stay in the theater to watch.
"Big Eyes" tells a story of fraud and how a meek woman through inner strength, and an assist from Jehovah, overcame her domineering fraud of a husband to claim her life's work. Amy Adams portrays Margaret Keane as an impulsive woman who flees her first husband for unspecified reasons and heads for San Francisco with her daughter in tow and no plan whatsoever for how to provide for them.
In very short order Margaret meets and marries Walter Keane (Waltz) who dazzles her with stories of living in Paris and supporting himself as an artist/real estate agent. At first, Walter is supportive and the two work together. However, when Margaret's unique paintings of saucer-eyed children gain attention over Walter's street scene of Paris, he decides he should pretend the “Big Eyes” are his work ... for promotional purposes only, of course.
That Walter Keane was a fraud is relatively well known, because he was an especially successful fraud. "Big Eyes" demonstrates how Margaret enabled the fraud and why it persisted for so long.
Adams is wonderful at portraying multitudes of emotion on her splendid features, especially with her narrow blue eyes, which ache and delight with equal fervor. With her voice barely a quiver, Adams brings Margaret's strength forward in brief dissertations about how personal her art is, and we know eventually that strength will transition into action.
After years of letting Walter co-opt her work and bastardize it into a pop phenomenon, Margaret left Walter and moved with her daughter to Hawaii. There she became a Jehovah's Witness and decided it was time to tell the truth about her paintings.
Here director Tim Burton directs a delightful scene in which Margaret reveals the truth to a random Hawaiian radio DJ who thought he was simply interviewing the wife of Walter Keane.
"Big Eyes" is certainly not without its delightful moments -- not just in its depiction of the radio show, but its scenes of the aftermath of people seeing Margaret's story on the AP wire. Then it appears in newspapers finally reaches Walter in San Francisco, where his indignant reaction to the story is completely hysterical. Also delightful is the courtroom follow-up as Margaret sues Walter for the proceeds of the “Big Eyes” paintings. Waltz acts out both sides of a cross-examination of himself about his creative process.
In the courtroom scene, Waltz becomes his most unctuously punch-able. If you didn't truly despise Walter prior to this scene, you will truly wish him ill by the end of his courtroom shenanigans. I have no idea how much of Walter Keane's work in court as his own idiot lawyer is actually based on the real-life case, but if it was anything like in the movie, he's lucky he wasn't strung up in the town square.
While I was delighted by the courtroom scene and Waltz has moments of glorious, comic oiliness, there are times when the drama becomes too much. The scene in which Walter first seizes credit for the paintings is infuriating to watch, as are all scenes in the film featuring Waltz opposite Danny Huston. He portrays the film's narrator, a gossip columnist for a San Francisco newspaper. Huston has an unctuousness to match Waltz's, and the two of them together is more insufferable than entertaining.
I can't say Tim Burton needed to cut back on Walter. That's relatively impossible given the true story. But some kind of modulation on the tone of his performance is, I believe, a reasonable request. The performance is at times so detestable that I wanted to leave the theater.
So, do I recommend "Big Eyes?" That's a good question. I really don't know. I appreciate the effort the film puts forth to tell this worthy, true-life story, but some of the film is nearly impossible to sit through. Waltz is incredibly effective, almost too effective, at making us despise him. Still, I can't help but credit the film for provoking such a visceral reaction in a viewer.
I really hate Walter Keane as he's portrayed in "Big Eyes." In that way I can't help but recommend the movie, with the caveat that this film will turn off as many people as it entertains. Adams is wonderful and the film is the best thing with Tim Burton's name on it in quite some time.
I still want to punch Christoph Waltz.
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