You have to be a certain age to know or care about the subject matter of “Big Eyes.”
However, the camp aesthetic being portrayed is as American as Andy Warhol’s Campbell soup cans.
“Big Eyes” may not seem like a Tim Burton film, but the lovingly recreated era – 1950s and 1960s – offers the oblique possibilities of “Edward Scissorhands” while narratively exploring the delusions common to many of his characters.
His literal approach, while portraying exceptional events, is a departure from the Burton of “Dark Shadows” and “Alice and Wonderland” and a return to the Burton of the simpler, straight-forward style of “Ed Wood,” by the same screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and to a lesser extent “Big Fish.”
Walter Keane, played by Christoph Waltz, was known for paintings of large-eyed children, “little hobo kids,” that became a phenomenon when he had them mass produced as lithographs and posters.
He was also the most commercially successful artist to never pick up the brush.
The paintings were actually made by his wife Margaret, who was all but locked in an attic painting them and sworn to never reveal their provenance, even to her solemn faced young daughter, looking like Wednesday Addams.
When Margaret and Walter met she was a shy single mother looking for security, and he was a fast talking charmer. He said he studied art in Paris after which he became “a Sunday painter” while working as a realtor.
Margaret, played by Amy Adams, was vulnerable to his patter and when her works became popular after being displayed at an under ground jazz club, they split the proceeds. But he took the credit. “Your pocket, my pocket,” he said.
What followed was international fame for her work, but not for her. The cover-up became worse than the crime and for decades she was forced to live a lie she helped to abet. Years later she sued him in a highly publicized court case over credit in which the judge gave each of the an hour to turn out a painting.
The story being told is as much as biography as feminist history lesson.
Walter died in 2000, but Margaret continues to paint at the age of 87, long enough to have the last laugh.
Three stars
With Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Jason Schwartzman, Danny Huston, Krysten Ritter, Terence Stamp. Produed by Scott Alexamnder, Larry Karaszewski, Lynette Howell, Tim Burton. Written by Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski. Directed by Tim Burton. Rated PG-13, language, adult theme. Approximate running time: 105 minutes.
Posted by