Big Eyes (2014)

Film: Big Eyes (2014)
Stars: Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Jon Polito, Krysten Ritter, Jason Schwartzman, Terence Stamp
Director: Tim Burton
Oscar History: The film did pretty well with precursors (including a Globe win for Amy Adams), but no dice when it came to AMPAS.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Can we first just commend everyone involved for attempting something different here?  Tim Burton decided not to hire Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp for the leads (when he so easily could have).  He also decided to go with a lower key film, which was a nice change of pace from the garishness that has been on display in other recent pictures.  And I am in love with the fact that this film exists to begin with-most biopics are stories that we generally already know.  Here Burton took a topic most of us are familiar with (Margaret Keane's iconic doe-eyed children have become ingrained in pop culture in a way only rivaled by Warhol's soup cans and Koons' balloon dogs) but a story most of us were not (it's neither something that just happened nor something that has been told a hundred times like, say, a biopic on Abraham Lincoln).  And it wasn't about a straight white dude overcoming obstacles!  All of this is to say that the film gets far more points from me as a result of it having its heart in the right place, even if it doesn't quite succeed in that most important of tasks of being very good.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is the tale of noted kitsch artist Margaret Keane (Adams), and the strange journey to how she lost and eventually gained back her artistic identity.  The film follows Margaret through her early life (when she leaves an abusive husband) to her second marriage to smarmy Walter (Waltz) to eventually her civil trial to gain recognition for her work.

The film is at its best when it focuses on Margaret herself.  Adams is strong in keeping Margaret, a woman with this wonderfully-felt world of artistic genius, on the sidelines of her own life.  It would be so easy to make her a martyr, but instead Adams does something just different.  She occasionally has moments when Margaret could seize what is hers but doesn't because her priorities are in a different order.  Like most of us in life, she knows that we all have wants and we all want more than we can have, but we put our eggs and our collateral into what matters most at the time.  Initially, while Margaret finds Walter's plan to steal her artistic output appalling, she's more concerned with making a second marriage work in a time period where opportunities for women are scarce.  If seeing a number of OVP films (for recent examples see here and here and here and here and here) over the past couple of months has indicated anything to me, it's that attitudes toward women, and in particular successful women, were considered abhorrent at the time, and I wouldn't remotely doubt that Margaret saw how little people would care for her success as a female, so she gave in in hopes that her daughter would have a better quality of life as a result.

However, Adams is smart enough to slowly let little protestations out regarding her husband's treatment of her, and thankfully it wasn't just when he starts to abuse she and her daughter (though that becomes the last straw).  Instead, it's when she realizes that he wasn't down-on-his-luck, but instead it was when it was obvious that everything about him was a lie, that he couldn't paint and his history in Paris was a complete fabrication.  I love that the film actually embraces that she is something that he will never be, no matter how he tries: she's an artist, she has talent, and the film doesn't remotely shy away from this fact.

The film fails, however, when it gives equal billing to Walter.  I know that occasionally truth-is-stranger-than-fiction is a rough go-through for filmmakers, and this was certainly the case in bringing Walter Keane, who by all accounts was a delusional sociopath, to the screen, but that doesn't mean there's a reason for bad acting.  And that's what Christoph Waltz does in this movie-he's really, really bad.  The early scenes he's occasionally subdued, but it's never believable that such a man could be considered charming, instead coming across as smarmy.  No one would give this particular man money, and no one would trust a word he said.  Waltz plays him as a cartoon of a used car salesman rather than someone that could envelope the country in a major fad of personality.  So awful is he by the courtroom scene that you actually want your money back when he randomly decides to cross-examine himself on the stand, imitating Perry Mason before constant scolding from the judge.  The movie needs more of a challenge when it comes to Walter-we know that Margaret eventually wins, but the movie shouldn't have made her victory the critical juncture in the screenplay without it seeming like more of a challenge for Walter.

Those are my thoughts on what is a very watchable, if only okay movie.  I loved the concept, liked the Adams, hated the Waltz, and would like to see Burton show this kind of restraint with a big-name property again.  What about you?  What did you think of Big Eyes?  Share in the comments!