Really enjoyable and crowd-pleasing, and a nice change of pace for Tim Burton that kind of takes him back to his roots. You can tell this is very much a film of his but he really lets the story and performances speak for themselves. Amy Adams is absolutely wonderful but I honestly thought Christoph Waltz stole the show - he perfectly embodied the sleazeball character he was portraying and his courtroom scene at the end was hilarious. B+

It does not eclipse my favorite Tim Burton films (Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow), but Big Eyes is an interesting, well-crafted entry in his distinctive oeuvre. He tells the true story of Margaret (Amy Adams), a California housewife and artist who flees an abusive suburban home life and moves with her daughter to San Francisco. Isolated in and a bit intimidated by the city, she falls under the spell of Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz), a shrewdly charismatic realtor and self-proclaimed "Sunday painter." Walter sees the monetary promise in unusual, almost Gothic paintings Margaret does of large- and sad-eyed waifs and slowly convinces her to sell them under his name because he is a superior salesman and showman and a man. Despite her ethical concerns, particularly when the scheme extends to lying to her daughter, Margaret agrees and quietly watches from a slight distance as Walter turns himself into an art-world novelty and sensation using her art, but how long can she remain silent?

In many ways, theirs is a disturbing story of deceit, gender constriction, and mental spousal abuse, but Burton never tries very hard to tug viewers' heartstrings. He plays his hand in a rather more playful, albeit still sensitive way, crafting a stranger-than-fiction caper confection rather than an overtly heavy experience. He clearly relishes rendering a nostalgic, slightly heightened vision of urban and suburban California in the 1950s and early '60s. Almost every color pops. He also awards his divergent and gifted leads a significant amount of room to play and generate magic and friction: Amy Adams' pensive acquiescence is sharply contrasted with Christoph Waltz's oily, ingratiating con-artist magnetism. They are both in top form, and there are a few amusing peripheral performances, too, including the incomparable Terence Stamp as an icily acidic art critic with zero tolerance for what he regards as over-hyped kitsch. And who has an icier stare than Stamp? Entertaining and often hilarious as it is, the film does have a notable flaw: Burton either cannot or will not dive very deeply into the soul of Margaret Keane. Of course, it is not hard to sympathize with her as inhabited by the beautiful and soulful Adams, but there are lingering questions the film should have addressed with greater clarity, including her initial inspiration for the iconic large-eyed waifs (they seem to emanate from an intense and perhaps painful corner of her mind) and the nuances of her midlife embrace of the Jehovah's Witnesses, a conversion broadly portrayed as giving her the overdue strength to stand up for herself as an artist and as a woman, in a court of law and otherwise.

B+

Oh, one more minor complaint: I was not a fan of Danny Huston's framing-device voice-over. I did not "get" it. The story reveals itself nicely without any hand holding, and his character (the columnist) as a physical presence never becomes particularly essential or integral.

On a positive note, the Lana Del Rey songs are wonderful.

And the two actresses playing Margaret's daughter, one as a small girl and the other as a teenager, are great.

yeah, the voice over was pretty damn bad. Had no use whatsoever.

I liked the movie. I think Margaret seeing the big eyes in some people felt out of place and it would've been nice to see a few more surreal elements in the film. Amy Adams is luminous (what's new) and Waltz is a presence that I can't really criticized. He does his schtick but it still hasn't lost it's appeal.

Margaret seeing the big-eyed people in real life is strange because it teases an exploration of her mind (the why of these paintings and their presumably intense personal significance to her) the film never delivers on. The film otherwise is more of a jaunty caper.

A light, yet still good look at this unique story in art history. Adams is fantastic as usual and the look of the film is really well done especially with the emphasis on colors. Burton's best since Big Fish.

I really need to catch this flick.

Really enjoyable movie. Adams is great and Waltz is appropriately sleazy. It's light but very entertaining.

8/10 (B+)

The most bland movie Tim Burton has ever made. Not his worst, but I can't think of another Burton film that felt like it could've come from anyone.

** (C)

This was entertaining, but it felt very slight. Burton will have to to bolder if he ever wants an Oscar.

B+

It's Tim Burton on autopilot. It's a good movie with some nice performances. It's good to see Burton being a little less fantastical in the visual department and nearly only relying on that. But I feel like the movie should've been a bit more darker. It's main theme is very serious and important and it has been done in such a light way that I think it was a missed opportunity to really showcase true misogyny, egoism, delusion of Mr. Keane and the submission, emotional distress, psychological torture Mrs. Keane went through.

I'm hoping this is just a good first step towards Burton's return to form.

*** / ***** (C)

I thought the courtroom scene felt so silly that it was out of place even in this light hearted of a film

I agree. It felt a bit too farcical.

Amy Adams is great in this and Christoph Waltz while good was playing himself without bringing any menace to the character (other than a few scenes here and there). The movie is so busy showcasing its actors and checking points to tell the story that it forgets to bring enough heart to this movie. You never get the sense of true problems that made this relationship and the entire fiasco possible in the first place. The final court room scene is also comical and lacks any depth. Without the actors and a good story this would have been a poor movie but Burton keeps this lively.

C+