2015 - BIG EYES, a true story indifferently told

The apparently true story of an artist named Margaret Keane as played by the actor Amy Adams.  Margaret was a painter who specialized in creepy portraits of children with the dominant feature in the paintings being kids with really big eyes.  Margaret married a guy named Walter Keane who was something of a conman and self promoter. He persuaded her to allow him to take the credit for her paintings while he successfully sold her artwork.

Walter Keane is played by the actor Christoph Waltz in a larger than life performance although you could probably make the argument this is actually kind of hammy acting.  Amy Adams as Margaret has chosen or was directed to play her role as a  very mousey woman who allows a man to dominate her life and her work.  The film eventually focuses on Margaret's efforts to get control of her life and her art and dump her domineering husband.

 

Tim Burton is the director and I suppose considering the cultivated weirdness of some of his previous pictures this would be prime material for him.  But this is no Ed Wood.  For whatever reason Burton abandoned his usual gothic style for a  more conventional story telling approach.  The whole thing is presented like a retro TV film from the 1970's.  The result is an extremely  dull and uninteresting film.  Christoph Waltz does what he can to bring some life into the film but it doesn't help.  Only during the last fifteen or twenty minutes does the film finally take off with a "paint off" contest at a libel trial between Walter and Margaret, something that actually happened in real life.

The writers are Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski who specialize in these kind of true life odd ball stories but they don' seem to be able to work up much interest in this story.   About the only thing this film has going for it is in the production design and the costumes.  But let's get real people don't watch films to marvel at the sets and wardrobe. They come for an interesting and entertaining story.  An extremely disappointing film.

The running time is 106 minutes.