movie review big eyes

In Woody Allen’s “ Sleeper ,” a hip party-goer 200 years in the future presents a print of a big-eyed waif child to hostess Luna ( Diane Keaton ), and Luna breathes in awe, as though it was an original Gaugain: “Oh, it’s Keane! It’s pure Keane!” The joke is that the only art that will have any staying power in the future will be the work of Margaret Keane. In fact, it will increase in value. Hugely popular in the 1960s and 1970s (and still), Keane’s work inspired critical revulsion from an art world who found her popularity baffling and disheartening. However, Andy Warhol said, “I think what Keane has done is terrific! If it were bad, so many people wouldn’t like it.” (He posed in front of a Keane print for photographer Steve Schapiro, mimkicking the child’s waif-like pose.) Margaret Keane allowed her husband, Walter, to take credit for her work for a good period of time in the 1960s, and that is the strange story of Tim Burton ‘s latest film, “Big Eyes.” Entertaining in spots, obvious and irritating in others, with a one-note schticky performance from Christoph Waltz as Walter, “Big Eyes” is a strangely conventional entry in Tim Burton’s filmography. The story itself is fascinating, though, which helps, and Amy Adams’ quiet meticulous performance as Margaret Keane is a beautiful and emotional piece of work.

Margaret is first seen piling her young daughter and a couple of suitcases into a gigantic tail-finned car, and driving to San Francisco, fleeing from her marriage, determined to start a new life. Margaret then meets Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) at an outdoor art fair, and he flatters her, gives her pep talks, and, before she even knows what is happening, they are going on a date, then another date, and then getting married. Margaret paints children with huge distorted eyes, and Walter paints Parisian street scenes (he lived on the West Bank for a while, he tells her); neither of them fit in with the trends in bohemian modern-art-obsessed 1960s San Francisco. Galleries scorn their work.

Walter is a big talker and a born promoter. He convinces the owner of a local jazz club to allow the two of them to hang their paintings along the hallway towards the rest rooms. One night, someone expresses admiration for one of the big-eyed paintings, and Walter, standing right there, takes credit for the work, hoping it will lead to a sale. The moment seems harmless at first, perhaps a misunderstanding, but then, as Margaret’s work starts to take off (and his is totally ignored), it happens again. Walter tells his wife that nobody would be interested in buying stuff from “lady painters,” and besides, she’s not good at talking about her own work or trying to sell it, and also, what does it matter if people think he painted it, as long as the two of them keep making money? Margaret is the type of person who is brow-beaten and intimidated by such logical arguments. She agrees to perpetuate the fraud, although it makes her uneasy and unhappy.

Walter Keane relishes his role as famous artist. He goes on talk shows, He opens his own gallery. He hustles his way into events. He comes up with a cockamamie story about how he spent time in Europe after the war, and was haunted by the devastation, by all the orphans. The orphans of the world are his inspiration for the big-eyed children he paints. Meanwhile, Margaret sits hunched in her artist’s garret, smoking, churning out the work that has made their fortune, unable to bask in her own glory. Margaret Keane would never have promoted herself into a world-wide phenomenon. She needed Walter for that.

Burton films all of this respectfully, with no fuss or fanfare, and except for one hallucinatory sequence in a grocery store when every customer stares mournfully at Margaret with hugely exaggerated eyes, the director plays it straight. There is an intermittent voiceover, given by a gossip columnist who was interested in Walter Keane; the voiceover helpfully (and simplistically) explains that “women didn’t just leave their husbands in those days.”

Christopher Waltz has been excellent in many films, with a knack for portraying ambition mixed with a smilingly callous approach to getting what he wants. With Walter Keane, Waltz telegraphs to us from the first moment we meet the character: “I am an unscrupulous individual. I am very sketchy. I am up to no good.” Waltz can’t resist “playing the villain”, doing so with such relish that he has nowhere to go but into caricature. The performance ratchets up and up and up, until finally he is a complete maniac, culminating in a scene where he tries to burn his house down, with his wife still in it. Waltz is obviously enjoying himself very much in the role, but maybe too much.

There’s a feminist undercurrent to “Big Eyes,” a sense that someone like Margaret Keane didn’t have the language to even understand how dominated by men she was, how much she enforced her own helplessness. When Walter tells her that art by women just doesn’t sell as well, Margaret doesn’t like it, but she acquiesces. She thinks he’s probably right. And he is right. She is in a very lonely position, shutting out her friends, her daughter. Walter has become her only conduit to the outer world.

Scrrenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski , who also wrote “ Ed Wood ,” “ The People vs. Larry Flynt ,” and “ Man on the Moon “, are clearly interested in popular art—art that is perhaps scorned by the mainstream establishment, but still speaks to a broad and diverse group of people. Margaret Keane’s work was hated by the insiders of the art world; they hated Walter Keane’s hard-liner promotional tactics; they hated that paintings lacking their stamp of approval were selling like hot-cakes. This attitude is personified in the film by Jason Schwartzman’s snobby San Francisco gallery owner and influential art critic John Canaday (played by Terence Stamp ), who described the big-eyed waifs as “atrocities.” Tim Burton, and his screenwriters, have a lot of affection for Margaret Keane’s work, they seem to take Andy Warhol’s position (Warhol’s quote opens the film). It’s an interesting question: who gets to say what is and is not art? Should popularity be equalled with bad? “Big Eyes” has a lot of fun with the established art world’s reaction to the big-eyes. When Schwarzman’s character, who despised the big-eyes, learns of Walter Keane’s fraud, he murmurs to himself, “Who would want to take credit?”

“Big Eyes” is full of fascinating questions about the meaning of art, the concept of popularity, and what it means to develop a huge audience. Back to Warhol: whether or not something is seen as “good” by an expert is irrelevant if so many people like it. The cultural gatekeepers will always be apoplectic in such a situation. “Big Eyes” is not a major film from Tim Burton, and it has some tonal issues, but one can see why he was drawn to such material. In a way, it’s a very personal film.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O’Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master’s in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Christoph Waltz as Walter Keane
Terence Stamp as John Canaday
Amy Adams as Margaret Keane
Danny Huston as Dick Nolan
Jason Schwartzman as Ruben
Krysten Ritter as DeeAnn

Director of Photography

Bruno Delbonnel
Larry Karaszewski
Scott Alexander

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Big Eyes Reviews

It’d be great to see Burton work with Amy Adams again.

Full Review | Sep 5, 2024

The film works thanks to Burton’s affection for both the art and the artist, Adams’ resilient performance, and a story that is too fascinating to be fiction.

Full Review | Aug 19, 2023

Quirky bits a humor shake the tone up a bit and Burton does several things with his camera that hearkens back to some of his earlier films.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2022

The film paints in thick brushstrokes.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 13, 2022

Visually, Big Eyes provides a warm viewing experience with vibrant colors and the mesmerizing paintings that became a cultural phenomenon.

Full Review | Jun 27, 2022

...both a fascinating biopic and a truly feminist piece of cinema.

Full Review | Oct 7, 2021

Tim Burton hits all the right feminist notes in setting the stage for her inspiring breakout. This is a must see.

A skillful, if a little thin look at an artist's soul and the soulless shark who tried to steal it from her.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 2, 2021

The stranger-than-fiction biopic Big Eyes is only the second of [Tim Burton's] non-animated pictures to have a woman at its center, and, perhaps not surprisingly, it's one of the richest portraits he's brought to the screen yet.

Full Review | Jan 22, 2021

Even during its best moments, the film is only a simple, small, pleasant digression.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Dec 4, 2020

The movie has merit as a depiction of an unusual episode in art history. Unfortunately, the director does not probe the incident in any depth, and what he does make of it is largely wrong.

Full Review | Aug 11, 2020

It cannot be denied that it is picturesque at times, but only to support the provocative histrionics of the neurotic performances of Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jun 26, 2020

Big Eyes remains watchable thanks to Adams and Waltz, its few moments of Burtonesque flair, and the fascinating story it tells about art in the last half-century.

Full Review | Feb 1, 2020

Big Eyes works because it gets the fundamentals of acting, directing, and screenwriting right. As in music, individual genius is great, but there's just no substitute for a band with good chemistry.

Full Review | Jan 9, 2020

[Amy] Adams' performance is refreshing and light, taking us on a powerful emotional journey performed with nuanced skill and heart.

Full Review | Dec 14, 2019

It's a likeable recapitulation of 1950s era America and the strange mutations that occur involving those humans attempting to buck the wrongly conditioned trappings of gender based social mores.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 19, 2019

DoP Bruno Delbonell buffs Burton's kitsch pop visuals to a soft sheen, but, like the script, they never dig deep enough into the emotional heart of this fascinating real-life story.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 17, 2019

It's a smooth, dreamy-looking film on the surface, but its two leads, Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz, are so out of sync and polarized they spoil the movie like acid curdles milk.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10 | Mar 20, 2019

It is a rare misstep for Burton who seems unsure what tone to adopt throughout. Certain visual and inventive flourishes of his are evident...et, he treats the vital moments in the story in a humdrum manner.

Full Review | Feb 27, 2019

Big Eyes proves to be an entertaining and enlightening look at society and its ideals.

Full Review | Jan 31, 2019

Entertainment
Review: Tim Burton Paints by Numbers in <i>Big Eyes</i>

Review: Tim Burton Paints by Numbers in Big Eyes

“I think what Keane has done is just terrific,” Andy Warhol told Life magazine in 1965. “It has to be good. If it were bad, so many people wouldn’t like it.” “Keane” was the name on the phenomenally popular paintings of waifs with space-alien orbs that earned the ripe contempt of the critical establishment (back when there was one) and sold by the millions in originals, reproductions and knockoffs that flourished in every sidewalk art show from Malibu to Montmartre.

What Warhol and no one else knew in the ’60s was that Walter Keane, who built the business and took all the credit, wasn’t the artist; his wife Margaret was . Those big eyes were his big lies — a scandal that remained a secret until Margaret Keane divorced Walter, went public in a 1970 radio interview and later won a lawsuit she brought against her delusional ex-husband. (She’s still active at 87.) Now this tale gets a superficial, DayGlo-bright paint-over in Tim Burton’s Big Eyes , with Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz as the battling spouses in the Keane family circus .

Fifty years after the onset of Keane-mania, high-art arbiters have lost their power. Wealthy people of the American mid-century would ornament their penthouses with Jackson Pollock’s splash panels, as emblems of the most refined taste money could buy. Instead, today’s plutocrats invest in what was the low art of their childhoods — vintage comic books, Norman Rockwell illustrations and rock-star guitars — or in no art, like the Keanes. Burton, famed for bringing an extravagant vision and precision of design detail to movie remakes of The Pee-wee Herman Show , Batman and Planet of the Apes , has collected Keane since the 1990s and commissioned Margaret’s portraits of his serial leading ladies Lisa Marie and Helena Bonham Carter. Is Keane’s work art or kitsch? In the post-Good Taste era, that question no longer applies.

Even if Margaret Keane’s work were valued no more highly than C.M. Coolidge’s century-old paintings of dogs playing poker (two of which sold in 2005 for nearly $600,000 ), Big Eyes should resonate as an intimate alternative history of the women’s-liberation movement. Here is a subjugated female emerging from cultural bondage to toot the horn her husband had been playing, and saying was his. The Keane story is a rich parable that deserves either a wilder or a more acute telling than Burton provides here.

In the late ’50s, when Big Eyes begins, Margaret Ulbrich (Amy Adams) is a pretty divorcee with a Marilyn Monroe hairdo but no visible personality; she’s platinum bland. Arriving in San Francisco with her daughter Jane (played first by Delaney Raye, then by Madeleine Arthur), she gets a job daubing angelic figures on children’s cribs. On weekends, she displays her early big-eye acrylics at outdoor exhibitions — she’ll idealize your child on canvas for 50 cents, or whatever change you can spare. Her sense of self-esteem is so battered and basement-level, she daren’t ask for more.

Sometimes a masochist meets the perfect sadist. Margaret’s manipulator was Walter, a natural con man who quickly senses both the potential appeal of her work and the fragility of her temperament, ripe for exploitation by his predatory charm. “I’m just a Sunday painter,” he confesses to Margaret, and even that is a lie: he lacks even the most rudimentary skills as a visual artist. But as a huckster, he’s a genius. Convincing Enrico Banducci (the wonderful Jon Polito), owner of the hungry i nightclub, to let him put his and Margaret’s paintings on the walls of the corridor leading to the toilets, Walter finds that the customers love Margaret’s portraits, not his landscapes, and — the sly weasel! — takes credit for her work. Oh, why not? They’re all signed “Keane”; it’s the family business. Besides, as Walter tells Margaret, “people don’t buy lady art.”

He wasn’t kidding. The act or art of painting, from the Lascaux caves until recent decades, was deemed a guy thing — at least by those (male) connoisseurs who set the agenda. H.W. Janson’s 1962 History of Art , a standard reference that has sold 2 million copies (and which, it is said, was largely written by Janson’s wife Jane), mentioned not a single female artist in its 572 pages. The superb painter and collagist Lee Krasner , who as a student had been told by her teacher, the German expressionist Hans Hoffman, that her work was “ so good you would not know it was painted by a woman ,” shivered in the shadow of her famous husband, Jackson Pollock, and did not receive a Museum of Modern Art retrospective until just after her 1984 death, She was the only the second woman artist (after Louise Bourgeois) to whom MoMA had devoted a major solo show.

The Krasner-Pollock artistic relationship was symbiotic: two distinct, mutually enriching visions. Walter Keane was a fraud, but not simply a parasitic one. You could argue that his entrepreneurial flair — he turned Margaret’s big eyes into a flourishing operation that peddled not just paintings but posters and postcards — was at least the equal of her artistic talent, however that may be defined. Years before Warhol established his Factory, where others executed (and sometimes created) the Pop Art paintings and avant-garde movies for which he served more as producer than artist, Walter was masterminding the Keane mini-industry. Of course he had only one employee: Margaret, the paintings’ sole creator. And he kept her working away, anonymously and virtually imprisoned, in her locked atelier.

Yet the script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who also wrote bio-pics of Andy Kaufman ( Man on the Moon ), Hustler publisher Larry Flynt ( The People vs. Larry Flynt ) and Burton’s Ed Wood , allows for fewer nuances than you’ll find in the Keane oeuvre. Waltz plays Walter as a psycho Svengali, preening or ranting, with an oily façade anyone could see through except for Adams’ tremulously insecure Margaret. For most of the movie she seems near tears, like the pitiable gamines she paints, and ready to surrender to a case of the vapors. Only when she divorces Walter, moves to Hawaii and joins the Jehovah’s Witnesses does she summon the gumption to reveal the sad truth behind the big eyes.

In The Fighter , The Master and American Hustle , Adams proved her expertise at evoking the ordinary demeanor that conceals an extraordinary will. Here her challenge is almost insurmountable: grounding Margaret’s character in some kind of emotional realism while her acting partner is bouncing off the walls of a different, crazier movie. Yet she comes close to finding a coherent arc in the three stages of Margaret, from weepy ingenue to angry captive to the I-am-woman-hear-me-roar feminist who takes belated charge of her life and her legacy. In Burton’s oddly paint-by-numbers movie, Adams is the only one who manages to create a portrait more valid and valuable than the proto-Camp classics of Margaret Keane.

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By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Amy Adams is picture perfect as Margaret Keane, a stifled artist who might have remained just another unhappy 1950’s housewife if she didn’t get up the gumption to give the boot to her lying husband, Walter ( Christoph Waltz ). It was Margaret who painted those portraits of sad, saucer-eyed waifs that left art critics cold. It was Walter who marketed his wife’s so-called low art into a jackpot industry. What ruffled Margaret was that Walter took credit for painting them, and worse that for years she let him. “People don’t buy lady art,” Walter told her.

Big Eyes could have been a dutiful Lifetime movie about the exploitation of women. That it becomes something scrappier, deeper and memorably comic and touching is due to the radiant Adams, who never patronizes Margaret, and to director Tim Burton , who gives the film the sheen of a fable laced with menace. For Burton, Big Eyes serves as a bookend to his masterful 1994 movie Ed Wood , also written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and also a monument to kitsch art triumphant.

What’s a girl to do? With her ex threatening a custody battle, she marries Walter, who persuades hungry i nightclub owner Enrico Banducci (Jon Polito) to show off Margaret’s paintings in his famed establishment, right near the toilets. Margaret’s work really takes off when Walter hits on the idea of selling them, cheaply, as posters and calendars.

The conflict kicks in when the womanizing Walter becomes increasingly abusive and Margaret leaves him, setting up shop in Hawaii, becoming a Jehovah’s Witness and spilling the truth on a 1970 radio in interview that she’s the only painter in the family. All this leads to a hilarious trial sequence in which Margaret and the inglorious bastard must paint in front of the judge. Burton turns the spectacle of watching Walter squirm into crowdpleasing fun without skimping on the human toll taken on a woman forced to lead a shadow existence.

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Waltz hams it up in high style, though a little more restraint would have made Margaret seem less a dupe for falling for a man whose only artistry is the con. It’s Adams who restores our rooting interest by showing us the steel even in Margaret’s reserve. It’s a performance of haunting transparency.

It’s clear that Burton sympathizes, minus irony, with Margaret’s fervent belief in what one critic calls “the big, stale jellybeans” she puts on canvas. A recent showing of Burton’s artwork at New York’s Museum of Modern Art attracted long lines and critical brickbats. Maybe that’s why Big Eyes, for all its tonal shifts and erratic pacing, seems like Burton’s most personal and heartfelt film in years, a tribute to the yearning that drives even the most marginalized artist to self expression no matter what the hell anyone thinks. Walter died in 2000, with no creative output. Margaret, 87, still paints every day. Burton gives her the sweetest reward in Big Eyes : the last laugh.

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Big Eyes (I) (2014)

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‘big eyes’: film review.

Tim Burton's latest sizes up the unusual couple behind some enduringly strange "art"

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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Big Eyes asserts itself as a nifty sort of Tim Burton companion piece to his earlier Ed Wood , a consideration of self-imagined “artistic” lives that have less to do with art than with notoriety of a very peculiar sort. This nimble, bemused, culturally curious look at the married instigators of the kitschy “big eyes” paintings of the early 1960s exudes an enjoyably eccentric appeal while also painting a troubling picture of male dominance and female submissiveness a half-century ago. Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz both shine in a distinctive work that will require shrewd handling on the part of The Weinstein Co. to give it a bounce from the specialized realm to a wider public.

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Parents Say 8 Reviews
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Common Sense Media Review

Delightful, quirky biopic of painter Margaret Keane.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 13+?

One use of "f--k." Also "s--t," "bitch," and &quot

In a drunken rage, a man throws lit matches at his wife and teen girl and forces

Characters drink fairly heavily in the movie's second half. One character is

A man and a woman kiss shortly before marrying. They're interrupted by a you

Any Positive Content?

One of the main themes is the danger and hurt involved with lying (the liar gets

Margaret is victimized through most of the movie, but she eventually finds the s

One use of "f--k." Also "s--t," "bitch," and "damn." "God" as an exclamation.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

In a drunken rage, a man throws lit matches at his wife and teen girl and forces them to lock themselves in a room. He starts a small fire. Also arguing and fits of rage.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink fairly heavily in the movie's second half. One character is staggering drunk in one scene.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A man and a woman kiss shortly before marrying. They're interrupted by a young girl. Occasional brief cuddling and kissing.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

One of the main themes is the danger and hurt involved with lying (the liar gets his comeuppance). Also the importance of believing in yourself and standing up for yourself.

Positive Role Models

Margaret is victimized through most of the movie, but she eventually finds the strength to stand up for herself, leading to a happy and fruitful life. If teen girls can learn from her struggle, she can be an inspiring figure.

Parents need to know that Big Eyes is Tim Burton 's delightful -- if slightly disturbing -- biopic of painter Margaret Keane ( Amy Adams ). Expect some shouting and threats and one scene in which a man gets very drunk and starts throwing lit matches at his wife and stepdaughter. Characters drink somewhat frequently, especially in the film's second half, but the match incident is the only scene of drunkenness. Language is spotty but includes one use of "f--k" and a few uses of "s--t." Sex isn't an issue, except that a couple shares a kiss after they decide to get married. There's a clear message about the dangers of lying, and Margaret overcomes adversity and goes on to live a long, happy life. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Very Good Movie

What's the story.

In the 1960s, Margaret Ulbrich ( Amy Adams ) separates from her husband and starts a new life in San Francisco, raising her daughter. While trying to sell her paintings of waifs with big eyes, she meets the exuberant Walter Keane ( Christoph Waltz ), and they marry. While Margaret is shy and introverted, Walter is a great salesman who sets about trying to market their paintings. During a potential sale, Walter lies and claims Margaret's work as his own. The lie spins hideously out of control, and as the paintings become more popular, the crazier Walter's schemes become and the more desperately he tries to keep the secret. Margaret winds up painting in solitude, unable to see friends or her daughter. Will she find the courage to reclaim her work ... and herself?

Is It Any Good?

Tim Burton teams with screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski for the first time since Ed Wood ; the result is another amazing-but-true story that's delightful, prickly, and bizarre. BIG EYES avoids the seriousness of too many other biopics and stays true not only to the Keanes' story and situation, but also to Burton's singular filmmaking vision.

While Burton uses quirky visuals to twist and dismantle the traditional domestic standard, he also focuses on an honest-to-goodness grown-up relationship and its interactions and confrontations. Burton's other signature touches are here, including Adams as one of his usual willowy blondes, but her great performance gets to the root of the character's deep, crippling emotional insecurity. Waltz is likewise terrific, manic and monstrous, the opposite of one of Burton's usual creative characters. A happy footnoote: As the movie closes, we learn that the real-life Margaret Keane is still alive in her 80s -- and still painting.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Big Eyes ' violence . Where does it manifest itself? Is it scary? Where does it come from, and how is it depicted? Does the relative lack of violence affect the impact of the few scenes that include it?

What is the sex life like of this married couple? What does the movie show and not show? What do these choices say about their relationship?

How frequently do characters drink ? Do they appear to enjoy it? Why do you think they drink? Are there realistic consequences?

What does the movie have to say about lying? Is the lie exposed? Is the liar punished?

Is Margaret a role model ?

Movie Details

In theaters : December 25, 2014
On DVD or streaming : April 14, 2015
Cast : Amy Adams , Christoph Waltz , Danny Huston
Director : Tim Burton
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Indian/South Asian actors
Studio : Weinstein Co.
Genre : Drama
Run time : 105 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : thematic elements and brief strong language
Award : Golden Globe - Golden Globe Award Winner
Last updated : September 16, 2024

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Looking back at the breadth of Tim Burton ’s career, it’s easy to identify 1994’s Ed Wood as one of the filmmaker’s greatest triumphs. While the more wild aspects of the director’s personal visual style are turned down, his same weirdo sensibilities are still very much alive in the movie, as he tells a story about some fantastic odd-ball characters while saying something about the deep value of artistic expression and personal passion. Twenty years later, Burton has once again channeled that specific energy to make his latest feature, Big Eyes - and the result is unquestionably the best film that he has made in years.

It certainly helps that the new project has reteamed Burton with Ed Wood screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, but really it just feels like the director actually has something to say with the strange tale of artist Margaret Keane ( Amy Adams ), who spent years living in anonymity while her husband, Walter ( Christoph Waltz ) took all the credit for her immensely popular paintings of young waifs with big eyes. Set in the 1960s art world of San Francisco, the film opens the door for Burton to explore a whole host of important societal issues and questions – from a woman’s second class citizenship during the era to the determination of what defines ‘art’ – and the director successfully engages with all of it while telling a well-told, character-driven story.

There was a tremendous inner turmoil that existed within Margaret Keane during her time with Walter. She hated that she wasn’t getting proper credit for her paintings as they became a phenomenon, but she also understood that that success wouldn’t necessarily be possible without a man taking the credit. As you might imagine, getting this fantastic, dramatic conflict across requires an actor up to the task of a very nuanced performance, and Amy Adams is phenomenal in the part. As she is locked away in her art studio and hidden away from the world, there is a war between the joy of her art and the sadness of her life boiling just below the surface, and Adams brings it all to life with her eyes alone in some scenes. And while Margaret’s work may be historically kitsch, it’s her immediately recognizable drive to put brush to canvas that makes the audience want to see her overcome the incredible amount of bullshit in her life and get what she is due despite all odds.

What really exacerbated the conflict within Margaret Keane is just how good Walter was at both his wife’s misappropriated artwork as well as himself, and in Big Eyes Christoph Waltz finds the character by putting on the same kind of antagonistic charisma that led us all to first fall in love with him in Quentin Tarantino ’s Inglourious Basterds . Of course, he’s not Nazi-level evil here, but it’s fascinating to watch him surf the various personality levels of this smarmy, eccentric, huckster character, and it’s downright incredible to watch him emotionally turn on a dime. There are scenes that begin with the audience smiling and laughing at Walter’s on-screen presence, but within a few moments his intensity and anger can turn that reaction into fear. The truth is that the audience is never quite sure exactly how far Walter would be willing to go to keep his and his wife’s secret, and Waltz fully delivers that edge.

In recent years, Tim Burton’s unique vision has been bogged down in making blockbuster adaptations, but Big Eyes not only delivers a unique and compelling story, but also a set of great lead performances and a subtle infusion of the director's own sensibilities and style while deftly balancing light and dark tones. It’s a wonderful move for the director’s career, and a fun, thought-provoking story for the winter season.

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.

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Film Review: ‘Big Eyes’

Amy Adams plays the painter Margaret Keane in Tim Burton's colorful but shallow biopic.

By Justin Chang

Justin Chang

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The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but they wind up revealing far too little in “ Big Eyes ,” an unpersuasive, paint-by-numbers account of the fraud perpetrated by Walter Keane, who succeeded in fooling the public and amassing a fortune by passing off his wife Margaret’s paintings as his own. Despite Amy Adams ’ affecting performance as an artist and ’50s/’60s housewife complicit in her own captivity, this relatively straightforward dramatic outing for Tim Burton is too broadly conceived to penetrate the mystery at the heart of the Keanes’ unhappy marriage — the depiction of which is dominated by an outlandish, ogre-like turn from Christoph Waltz that increasingly seems to hold the movie hostage. Still, the tale’s colorfully entertaining veneer and the name talents involved should draw an appreciative number of arthouse patrons to the Weinstein Co. release, set to open Christmas Day.

Although this independent production qualifies as a change of pace for Burton following the elaborate live-action fantasy worlds he’s inhabited of late, it’s plain to see what might have personally drawn him to the story of a shy, stifled artist whose creations captivated many with their eccentric fusion of the tender and the grotesque. And while there may be no overtly supernatural trappings in evidence, Burton, reteaming with his “Ed Wood” writing duo of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (whose other biopic credits include “The People vs. Larry Flynt” and “Man on the Moon”), has effectively rendered the story as a sort of 20th-century fairy tale, about a sweet damsel in distress locked away by an evil enchanter who somehow manages to keep her and the outside world under his spell for more than a decade.

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Reinforcing the storybook feel, the events are narrated by a side character, real-life San Francisco Examiner columnist Dick Nolan (Danny Huston), who offers pithy but clunky observations about the overweening sexism of the era and the limited options available to a Christian single mother and divorcee like Margaret Doris Hawkins Ulbrich (a blonde-wigged Adams). That presumably explains why she seems so quiveringly fragile when we first meet her in Northern California in 1958, frantically packing her things and, along with her young daughter, Jane (Delaney Raye), leaving her never-seen first husband.

Popular on Variety

With little money and no real plan, Margaret moves with Jane to San Francisco, setting up shop at an outdoor art fair and displaying her signature paintings of forlorn-looking children with abnormally large, soulful peepers. These in turn catch the eye of the smooth-talking Walter Keane (Waltz), a successful real-estate man who has made the pursuit of art his life’s passion, in a manner of speaking. Sweeping the naive Margaret off her feet with his intoxicating tales of having lived and painted in Paris, where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and drew inspiration for his many Montmartre street scenes, Walter seems too good to be true — partly because he’s a known womanizer, as Margaret’s only friend (Krysten Ritter) can attest, but also because Waltz’s wolfish, trust-me grin is a clear tipoff.

But Margaret is anxious for a better life, desperate to keep custody of Jane and genuinely smitten with Walter, so she swiftly accepts his proposal of marriage. Not long after a blissful Hawaii wedding and honeymoon, Walter, with his keen talent for showmanship and self-promotion, begins shopping their paintings around San Francisco, eventually persuading local impresario Enrico Banducci (Jon Polito) to display them near the restrooms in his famous nightclub, the hungry i. But when passersby ignore Walter’s work and instead find themselves gravitating toward Margaret’s big-eyed waifs, he begins openly claiming credit for the latter, which his wife has made the mistake of signing with her new married name, “Keane.”

In the film’s pivotal stretch, Margaret learns the full extent of her husband’s fabrications, but finds herself too shocked, betrayed and frightened to reveal the paintings’ true authorship. It’s easy enough to believe that her courage and instinctive honesty might fail her in the moment, and that she might become a willing participant in a deception that Walter says is no big deal, and yet somehow crucial to the success of their operation (“People don’t buy lady art,” he notes). It’s also understandable why the lie might become harder and harder to expose as her work becomes a cultural phenomenon. Before long, Walter is opening his own gallery; selling countless prints, posters and postcards; discussing the motivations behind his art on television; earning a sly endorsement from no less a lover of consumerist art than Andy Warhol and seizing every opportunity to present paintings to politicians, dignitaries and movie stars, such as Joan Crawford.

The problem is that on some level, despite this carefully orchestrated flurry of activity, “Big Eyes” doesn’t seem to trust either the factual truth or the emotional logic of the dilemma it’s showing us. Shifting uncertainly between exaggerated comedy and tense domestic drama (and propelled both ways by Danny Elfman’s churning score), the film skips along on the surface, never really approximating the texture of an actual, lived-in marriage, or the complexities of a family situation where a woman would feel compelled to lie to her own daughter (played as a teenager by Madeleine Arthur), who’s clearly too wise and perceptive to be so fooled. And whenever Margaret’s pained reactions and increasingly bitter, sarcastic exchanges with Walter aren’t deemed expressive enough, Nolan’s narration is on hand to spell out the obvious (“Now the cover-up was worse than the crime!”).

Although saddled with similarly on-the-nose dialogue and hemmed in by the essentially passive nature of her role, Adams manages to supply the film with a compelling center, showing Margaret’s tireless painting to be at once a concession to Walter’s demands, a vital creative outlet and an eloquent act of defiance. Increasingly, her paintings seem to express the silent outrage that their creator cannot, which makes it all the more unnecessary when the film has her experience visions of big-eyed people staring at her in public, in a mannered attempt to suggest her increasing guilt and anxiety over the situation.

Her doll-like fragility eventually giving way to a hard-won resilience, Adams’ Margaret is an effortlessly sympathetic figure. Then again, one might well feel sympathy for anyone with the misfortune of being married to Walter Keane, played by Waltz with the sort of aggressive showboating intensity that entertains initially, but eventually gives the picture almost no room to breathe. This becomes especially apparent during the film’s second half, which includes a fiery confrontation and an amusingly over-the-top courtroom drama (presided over by a fine James Saito as the judge), and Walter goes from weasel-with-an-easel to raving psycho to clownish performance artist. A certain hamminess is built into the role, but Waltz never vanishes into it; his self-amused grin and inimitable vocal and verbal delivery make it virtually impossible to see the character for the character actor.

In its smartest touch, the film makes time for the voices of various art-world tastemakers — namely, a local gallery curator (Jason Schwartzman) and the New York Times art critic John Canaday (a delightful Terence Stamp) — who form a sort of dryly funny Greek chorus, reacting with unconcealed horror to the massive success of the Keane paintings, which Canaday witheringly describes as “an infinity of kitsch.” This is the second movie in as many months (after “Birdman”) to feature a heated argument between a Times reviewer and the object of his or her derision, and it’s wise enough to view Margaret Keane’s legacy with a measure of critical detachment, acknowledging the porous boundary between art and kitsch, the frequent clash of populist and elitist sensibilities and the inherent subjectivity of a spectator’s response.

Despite its relatively realistic setting and restrained use of visual effects, Burton’s 17th feature as a director is as meticulously designed as one would expect. Taking advantage of splendid views of San Francisco (including the Palace of Fine Arts, where the real Margaret Keane can be seen seated on a bench in the background) and Hawaii, where much of the later action is set, d.p. Bruno Delbonnel’s images boast a warmth and richness of color appropriate to the film’s subject, amplified by the vivid period detailing of Rick Heinrichs’ production design and Colleen Atwood’s costumes.

Reviewed at Weinstein Co. screening room, Beverly Hills, Nov. 13, 2014. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 106 MIN.

Production: A Weinstein Co. release and presentation of a Tim Burton/Electric City Entertainment production. Produced by Lynette Howell, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski, Burton. Executive producers, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Jamie Patricof, Katterli Frauenfelder, Derek Frey.
Crew: Directed by Tim Burton. Screenplay, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski. Camera (Technicolor), Bruno Delbonnel; editor, JC Bond; music, Danny Elfman; production designer, Rick Heinrichs; supervising art director, Chris August; set designers, costume designer, Colleen Atwood; sound, Chris Duesterdiek; supervising sound editors, Oliver Tarney, Bjorn Ole Schroeder; re-recording mixers, Michael Semanick, Tom Johnson; special effects coordinator, Sean House; visual effects supervisors, Mark Stetson, Ralph Maiers; visual effects producer, Lauren Weidel; visual effects, Zoic Studios; stunt coordinators, Scott Nicholson, Rocky Capella; line producer, Brendan Ferguson; assistant director, Katterli Frauenfelder; casting, Jeanne McCarthy, Nicole Abellera.
With: Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Jon Polito, Krysten Ritter, Jason Schwartzman, Terence Stamp, Delaney Raye, Madeleine Arthur. (English, French, Italian dialogue)

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DVD & Streaming

Content Caution

In Theaters

December 25, 2014
Amy Adams as Margaret Keane; Christoph Waltz as Walter Keane; Krysten Ritter as DeeAnn; Jason Schwartzman as Ruben; Danny Huston as Dick Nolan; Delaney Raye as Young Jane; Madeleine Arthur as Older Jane

Home Release Date

Distributor.

The Weinstein Company

Movie Review

The movie’s title doesn’t lie. They’re huge, these eyes—dark, shiny, saucer-size orbs set in the faces of sad little children. In the late 1950s and early ’60s, long before the Western world had ever heard the word anime , these doe-eyed waifs painted by Keane were all the rage.

Oh, the critics weren’t enamored. The respectable art world called them commercialized kitsch. The eyes were freakish and sentimental and, well, just plain weird. “Like big, stale jellybeans,” sniffed gallery owner Ruben.

But the public was entranced. “I believe you can see things in the eyes,” artist Margaret Keane said. And her fans saw a great deal: pain and fear and longing and hope. They saw secrets there. Perhaps, in those haunted faces, they saw themselves.

Margaret Keane painted these waifs every day for years—the dark eyes, the creepily innocent expressions. She dutifully signed “Keane” at the bottom of each and turned them over to her husband. He’d hang them in his gallery for sale or give them to a passing celebrity while always, always claiming them as his own.

Throughout those mid-century decades, during the Keane big-eyed waif heyday, they were known as Walter Keane’s paintings. Never mind that Walter never so much as slapped a spot of paint on them. Never mind that the only thing he saw in the eyes of those strange, painted children were dollar signs. He took the credit because he had to—or so he told his wife. Women weren’t taken seriously in the male-centric art world. If she took credit for them, they’d never sell.

“What about honesty?” she asked.

“I’m Keane, you’re Keane,” he gushed. “From now on, we’re one and the same.”

So Margaret painted on in her darkened studio, a room not even her own daughter could enter. Only she and Walter knew the truth. Only they knew the real secret hiding behind those big, dark eyes.

Positive Elements

True-to-life stories rarely give us clear-cut heroes or villains. Reality just doesn’t often lend itself to such unalloyed role models. For much of the movie, Margaret is both a victim and an accomplice to Walter’s deeply deceptive and damaging scheme—even after the two separate.

But we do see that she is deeply bothered by the lies they’re propagating—and not just because she’d like to take credit for her phenomenally successful works. Lying is wrong, Margaret knows, and she’s particularly bothered by the fact that she’s lying to her daughter, Jane. She’s eventually persuaded that, no matter the cost, she has to tell the truth.

Spiritual Elements

What convinces her to come clean? A visit from a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses. They leave her a pamphlet that emphasizes the importance of always being honest. “Let the stealer steal no more,” Margaret reads aloud to Jane. The sect has a profound influence on Margaret’s life, and she tells some fellow believers that once Jehovah convinced her to tell the truth, she became as happy as she’d ever been. When Walter starts unleashing counterclaims in the press, Jane wonders aloud what Jehovah would think of them filing a defamation lawsuit.

Margaret also visits a Catholic priest to ask him about the lying she’s doing. “I was raised Methodist, so if that’s a problem, I can go,” she prefaces. She doesn’t tell the man about the specifics, just that her husband is asking her to fib, even to her daughter, about something important. The confused priest believes that perhaps Walter is just trying to protect Jane from an uncomfortable situation, and so he says, “Man is the head of the household. Perhaps you should trust in his judgment.”

Before her encounter with Jehovah’s Witnesses, Margaret was fascinated by numerology. We see her pick up a book on the subject in a grocery store and proceed to bore a potential customer about the numeral significance of her name. When Margaret moves to San Francisco, a friend tells her that if she’s interested in salvation she should “try the Buddhist temple” (a way to illustrate the city’s bohemian diversity in the late 1950s). When she and Walter get married in Hawaii, Margaret declares the place to be miraculous. “Only God could create these colors,” she says. But she also admits to saying a prayer to the Hawaiian idol Kane, the islands’ supposed god of creation.

Sexual & Romantic Content

Margaret and Walter were both divorced before they met. It’s when her ex tries to get custody of Jane (alleging that a single mother can’t provide for the girl) that Walter asks Margaret to marry him. We see them kiss and hug and cuddle. After they return from their honeymoon, an old friend tells Margaret that Walter is a notorious philanderer who has “diddled every skirt in the art circuit.” Margaret is not put off. She knows Walter isn’t perfect, she says, seeming to value his role as a provider over his faithfulness. We see her passively accept his wandering eye at parties and art openings.

Women wear blouses and dresses that reveal cleavage. Jane, as a teen, wears a skimpy bikini top.

People begin to wonder why nearly all of “Walter’s” paintings seem to feature preadolescent waifs. When he asks his wife about what his “motivation” should be, Margaret jokes, “Maybe you have an unhealthy obsession with little girls.”

Violent Content

Walter smashes a painting over somebody’s head—a confrontation that lands them on the front page of the newspaper (and improves business for both). After that, the two engage in seemingly heated, but manufactured, disagreements.

Walter nearly stabs an art critic in the eye with a fork. Drunk, he starts flipping lighted matches toward Margaret and Jane. When the two barricade themselves in Margaret’s studio, Walter stuffs the lighted matches through the keyhole … near a container of kerosene. Inebriated again, Walter threatens to have Margaret “whacked” if she ever reveals their secret.

Crude or Profane Language

One f-word and five or six s-words. We hear “son of a b–ch” once, “h—” a half-dozen times and “p—” once. Someone makes an obscene gesture. God’s name is misused seven or eight times (once with “d–n”), and Jesus’ is abused three or four times.

Drug & Alcohol Content

Margaret smokes a great many cigarettes. She, Walter and nearly everyone else drink quite a bit, too (mostly wine, sometimes hard liquor). They frequent bars, and Margaret says of her home’s wet bar, “You’d be surprised how much use we get out of it.” Walter is particularly prone to downing its contents, often drinking to excess. And most of his aggressive moments come when he’s under the influence. As for Margaret, when she becomes a Jehovah’s Witness, she dumps a bottle of booze into the sink. There’s talk of a “reefer.”

Other Noteworthy Elements

Sometimes it’s a little hard to tell whether Walter’s a habitual liar or slightly insane. At first he doesn’t seem to want to take credit for Margaret’s work. But when he begins to do so, he grows more and more insistent on Margaret playing along. [ Spoiler Warning ] And hers are not the only paintings he steals the glory for. He also lies to and deceives Margaret about other quite important things, leaving her to wonder whether he’s fabricated most of his life’s details.

About Margaret’s first marriage we’re told that she “walked out on her suffocating husband long before it became the fashionable thing to do.” After her second divorce, Walter forces Margaret to give up any claims on the paintings and insists that she paint him 100 more to supply him with future income. It’s the price of being rid of him, Walter says. Margaret reluctantly agrees.

Jane talks back and is disrespectful to her mom on occasion, pushing against Margaret’s concerns.

Big Eyes —based on the real-life story of the Keanes and their art — suggests that Margaret was not just a victim of her husband, but of the era. Women, the movie tells us, were second-class citizens, incapable of supporting themselves and unlikely to harbor world-class talent. This was a man’s world, Walter so often stressed. If you wanted to succeed—if you wanted to have your suburban palace with its pool—you had to abide by a man’s rules. And a man like Walter had some very strange rules indeed.

Margaret’s painted characters were silent and submissive, rarely smiling and never laughing. Often a tear shows itself trickling down an impassively smooth cheek. To the outside world, Keane’s children seemed to know unspeakable secrets. But they were actually surprisingly open—offering quiet clues to an inner pain borne with stoic resolve, reflecting Margaret’s own hurt, fear and loneliness.

A remarkable performance by Amy Adams captures Margaret’s victimization and internal struggles with powerful subtlety. In Margaret, moviegoers see not a hero, but someone struggling with circumstances and villainous oppressors and her own complicit sins. The Bible tells us that the truth will set us free, and that was quite literally true for Margaret. That is the whole of the moral takeaway here: Margaret bore a strange and terrible secret for more than a decade. And when she decided to come clean during a radio interview in 1970, her life finally turned around.

The content takeaway includes daubs of blue language, smoking and drinking, some spiritual misdirection, and a scene or two of pretty meanspirited violence.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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Big Eyes Review

Big Eyes is an entertaining, thought-provoking, and often insightful drama on the subject of art and authorship. However, it’s marred by an uneven approach. One minute it wants to approach it as a farce and populate its stage with larger-than-life caricatures, but then suddenly it’s examining the Keane marriage and delving into psychology of that toxic relationship. It can't service both approaches, and the drama suffers in the end.

Where to Watch

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Ign recommends.

"Truth Conquers Deceit in Biopic of Quirky Painter"

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
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What You Need To Know:

(Pa, B, PC, Fe, C, FR, LL, V, S, N, A, D, M) Light mixed pagan worldview with some moral statements against lying, manipulation and deceit, but also some subtle politically correct, feminist elements, but female protagonist does respect the Bible (even though she becomes a Jehovah’s Witness) and at one point says, “Only God could create theses colors”; seven obscenities and eight profanities (including abusing Jesus’s name), plus an obscene gesture; light violence includes husband threatens his wife and even tries to start a fire in a room she’s in, a man is punched; no sexual content, but married couple kiss and married man flirts with other women; no nudity but some female cleavage and women in swimsuits; moderate wine drinking; no drug use, but some smoking; and, lots of lying, manipulation, deceit and illegal fraud, but this is not condoned and is eventually made right.

More Detail:

BIG EYES is a biopic directed by Tim Burton about Margaret Keane and her famous paintings that became a phenomenon in the 1950s and 60s.

The movie begins with Margaret (Amy Adams) leaving her abusive husband Frank and escaping to San Francisco with their daughter. Making a living from doing street portraits, Margaret meets the suave Walter Keane, a fellow painter who compliments her artwork. When Frank threatens to take custody of their daughter because Margaret isn’t a good provider, Walter proposes to Margaret they get married, and he’ll take care of them. Even though she hardly knows Walter, she agrees and the two get married.

One day while trying sell some of his own artwork at a club, someone takes an interest in his wife’s work, a painting of a little girl with abnormally large eyes. In order to make the sale, Walter takes credit for the work. After some strategic press, the paintings start selling off the wall.

When Margaret finds out Walter has been taking all the credit for her paintings, she’s upset, but too soft spoken to do anything about it. Walter says they’re married, so who gets the credit doesn’t really matter, and the money is good.

The big eye’d paintings become a major hit, and Walter smartly starts selling print outs of the unique pictures. Margaret continues to secretly paint while Walter takes all the credit and pulls in a fortune. The longer they do this, the guiltier Margaret becomes for all their lies. Eventually, Walter becomes increasingly threatening, and Margaret is forced to leave him. Years later, she decides to step up and take credit for all her work. Walter and Margaret take the issue to court, where there are a couple very funny scenes.

BIG EYES is a very interesting movie from Tim Burton. It’s also one of the least strange movies he’s done. One can’t help but be empathetic for Amy Adams as Margaret. Amy gives a subtle, yet very effective performance as a conflicted woman. The extremely talented Christoph Waltz also excels in his role as the cunningly smart and eventually despicable Walter. BIG EYES doesn’t stand out like Margaret’s paintings do, but it’s an entertaining movie nonetheless.

BIG EYES has some mixed messages. One can’t help but hope Margaret will find the courage to reveal the truth of her situation. Thus, the movie shows lying, manipulation and deceit in a negative light. That being said, the movie has a subtle politically correct, feminist tone. While Margaret is indeed treated unfairly and unjustly, some parts of the movie seem unlikely and anachronistic. For example, when Margaret’s conscience tells her that lying is wrong, she asks a priest for advice, and he tells her to just “submit to her husband,” without asking her any more questions. For a priest to tell her to disobey God over her husband is both unbiblical and unrealistic in the way it’s portrayed. Eventually, Margaret becomes a Jehovah’s Witness, which gives her a newfound sense of what’s morally right and wrong. It also gives her the confidence to stand up to Walter. BIG EYES also contains some strong foul language, however. So, caution is advised.

Big Eyes Review

26 Dec 2014

106 minutes

Big Eyes, Tim Burton’s 17th film as a director, doesn’t fit into the pervading and possibly unfair caricature of his recent back catalogue. You know the one: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, oddball outsider, white make-up, off-kilter camera angles, Gothic trappings, Danny Elfman tunes... Visually his sunniest film since Big Fish, Big Eyes is part art history biopic, part portrait of a sadistic marriage and part ’50s period drama with all the sexism and snobbishness the decade suggests. In scale and feel, within Burton’s output, it is probably closest to Ed Wood but it doesn’t deliver similar degrees of flavour and insight. It’s colourful and broadly enjoyable, but lacks the textures and truths to really make it great.

It’s easy to see why Burton was attracted to the story of Margaret Keane (Amy Adams), the painter of saucer-eyed waifs that became hugely popular in the ’50s. Both artists have the ability to mine the tender from the grotesque, turning a brand built on spooky kitsch into mainstream success, often to the befuddlement of the critical establishment. What feels a stretch for the director is the heart of the movie; Margaret’s difficult marriage to wannabe artist Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz), who took all the credit for his wife’s work as it grew from street art to nationwide phenomenon.

Screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski specialise in off-the-wall biopics (from Ed Wood to The People Vs. Larry Flynt and Man On The Moon), but they can’t mine the complexity and sadness from Margaret’s position. A family life where a mother lies to her perceptive daughter seems ripe for nuanced, riveting drama but here veers wildly from broad comedy to slasher horror (Walter chasing the women through the house). The film also never finds a way to dramatise the source of Margaret’s creativity, be it visually or verbally (“The eyes are the windows to the soul” is about as good as it gets). There is little sense of why she ostensibly paints the same debatably banal portrait over and over again.

A blonde-wigged Adams provides a compelling, sympathetic core to the movie, selling the idea that Margaret would go along with Walter’s fraud while believably conveying the character’s forthright conviction when enough is enough.A showman, entrepreneur and confidence trickster, Walter hasan in-built capacity for loquacious language and the dramatic flourish. To start with, Waltz’s teeth-and-tics flamboyance entertains, but it soon begins to suffocate the whole picture, reaching nuclear levels whenWalter decides to cross-examine himself in a climactic court case.

Big Eyes never reconciles the tone between Adams’ gentle, studied delivery and Waltz’s cartoony outlandishness, and the depiction of what is a controlling, exploitative relationship subsequently rings false.

The big showdown sees Margaret and Walter forced to produce duelling paintings in court to prove authorship of the Keane portfolio. It’s a bizarre idea you feelmust have been a prime driver in Burton taking on the project, but he delivers a potentially great moment in the most pedestrian way.

There are, however, intermittent flashes of Burton’s personality. The pastel-coloured houses of San Francisco recall the suburbia of Edward Scissorhands, a close-up of Walter looking through a keyhole is characteristically creepy and, most strikingly, a scene in which Margaret sees the denizens of a supermarket with the pumped-uppupils of her paintings. But, while it is largely technically proficient, this is strangely anonymous filmmaking. Surely a Tim Burton film should never have a montage to a Lana Del Rey song?

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Big Eyes (United States, 2014)

Tim Burton's name is on the credits but Big Eyes doesn't feel at all like the visually eccentric, gothic-tinged productions we normally expect from the offbeat director. Oh, there are some "Burton-esque" moments, like a vacation in Hawaii that's suffused in pastels and hyper-real colors. The "big eyes" of the title, the central feature of the Keane paintings, are in keeping with Burton's sensibilities but he doesn't overuse them. Aside from those elements, this is a straightforward and mature film with little in the way of overt weirdness. And neither Johnny Depp nor Helena Bonham Carter is anywhere to be found.

Big Eyes opens in 1958 with picture perfect period detail and a voiceover by Danny Huston, who sounds eerily like his father, John. Our intrepid lead character, Margaret Ulbrich (Amy Adams), has jumped in the car with her daughter, Jane, to flee a failing marriage. She relocates to San Francisco where circumstances bring her together with flamboyant landscape painter Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz). Margaret is also an artist, although all of her creations are variations on a theme: waifs with exaggeratedly large eyes. After a whirlwind courtship, Margaret and Walter are married and that's when the trouble starts. After working out a deal with a local nightclub owner, Walter is able to display his and Margaret's paintings. When hers sell and his don't, he begins passing off her art as his own. When she learns what he's doing, she's hurt but reluctantly agrees to promote the sham. The "big eyes" paintings become hugely popular but, despite all the money, Margaret is increasingly unhappy, feeling as if something important has been stolen from her. For his part, Walter becomes unpredictable, especially when he has been drinking.

In addition to being a bio-pic, Big Eyes has strong themes about the importance of the act of creation to an artist and the tug-of-war between art and commerce in popular media. The ideas related to these subjects are incorporated in such a way that, although not subtly presented, they blend into the narrative flow. Plagiarism, it is said, is the greatest sin that can be committed against an artist. Big Eyes illustrates that it's no less traumatic when the artist is complicit in the act. From the moment when Walter claims Margaret's art as his own, she feels as if she has lost her identity. She becomes morose and withdrawn. It's not that she desires wealth (which she has) or fame (which has been ceded to her husband), but she wants recognition for her creations. They are her babies. Worse, to keep the gravy train rolling, Walter forces her to labor day and night churning out "big eyes" paintings. The soul goes out of her work.

The face of art belongs to Terence Stamp, who plays high minded art critic John Canaday, a man cut from the same cloth as Lindsay Duncan's theater appraiser in Birdman . Canaday dismisses the "big eyes" paintings as the work of a hack and decries their popularity. When Walter objects, claiming that people love them, Canaday rebuts that the adulation of the masses doesn't make them art. Further highlighting the art/commerce divide is the modern art gallery across the street from where Walter sets up shop. After refusing to show the "big eyes" paintings, the owner of that venue (played with perfect snootiness by Jason Schwartzman), is forced to watch as his new neighbors' popularity explodes. Burton pokes fun at those whose artistic views are "pure" but he also hints that his sympathies lie with them.

This is probably a very personal tale for Burton, who has always had an uncertain relationship with Hollywood. Many of his films have been financially successful but his pet projects have often been ignored and unloved. For every Batman , it seems, there's a Frankenweenie . Ask the director which means more to him, and there's no doubt about his answer. Ask the studios which they prefer and the response will be different. Although dissimilar in many ways, Big Eyes and Birdman share a core theme that reunites Keaton and Burton 25 years later.

Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz are solid but this isn't the best recent performance for either. That may be unfair considering how many awards and nominations they have received but the truth is that no actor not named Streep can be nominated for everything they do and just because their work here isn't Oscar worthy doesn't mean it isn't effective. Stirring portrayals emerge through small parts, in particular Danny Huston as a '60s era newspaper gossip columnist and Stamp. They bring color to supporting, clichéd roles.

Like all "based on" tales, Big Eyes takes some liberties with the facts but the result works dramatically. The ending satisfies in a way that only a courtroom scene can and Waltz plays it with just enough buffoonery to inject humor into the proceedings. For the most part, Big Eyes works because of its restraint - something rarely claimed about one of Burton's cinematic offspring.

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Movie Review: Big Eyes (2014)

Aaron Leggo
Movie Reviews
4 responses
--> January 3, 2015

For years now, Tim Burton has seemingly lost the ability to surprise. So his latest picture succeeds on that modest level by actually being somewhat decent. Big Eyes , a strange true story about deceit in the world of art and marriage, is hardly Burton at his best, but it’s certainly Burton at his most enjoyable in years. Trading in the garish CGI and ramshackle storytelling of relatively recent disasters “ Alice in Wonderland ” and “ Dark Shadows ” for the quaintness of a grounded domestic drama, Burton at least seems to have regained some heart in his work.

The filmmaker has always seemed more comfortable in fantasy worlds than in real ones, but those desires have led him down some pretty rotten paths of late, chasing the digitalized phantoms of his grand past. And besides, Big Eyes , for all of its true story-ness, is a weird little tale of the real world gone somewhat awry, so perhaps it’s not too far from Burton’s comfort zone after all.

Its closest cousin in the director’s filmography is clearly “Ed Wood,” the richly comical biopic that is easily one of Burton’s greatest achievements. And of course, it’s no coincidence that both movies are written by biopic vets Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Their involvement here puts the movie in that difficult spot where a comparison begs to be made, especially considering the greatness of the last time this writing duo teamed up with Burton.

Big Eyes feels as much like lesser Alexander/Karaszewski as it does lesser Burton, but thinking more positively, the writers have certainly helped pull Burton back to a more interesting and engaging place than he’s been in lately. The comedy definitely feels more natural than it did in “Dark Shadows” and the characters are actually compelling at times, which is much more than can be said about any of the inhabitants of Burton’s Wonderland.

Perhaps it’s the lack of Johnny Depp, who once did some of his most gloriously zany and hauntingly moving work under Burton’s direction and then followed that up years later with his most insipidly annoying shtick to date. Whatever the reason, it seems that Burton is conscious of how out of control his nonsense has become and has decided to rein himself in with something a little more calm and collected.

Well, calm is a relative word here, because Christoph Waltz (“ Django Unchained ”), who plays con artist Walter Keane, is about as wired as he’s ever been. To balance him out, there’s a meek, quiet Amy Adams (“ American Hustle ”) as Margaret Keane, Walter’s new wife and a distinctive painter whose titular style took the art world by storm in the 50s and 60s. The strangeness of the story stems from Walter’s decision in the heat of a moment that could make or break a sale to claim Margaret’s paintings as his own.

Big Eyes (2014) by The Critical Movie Critics

Marital discourse.

The little fib becomes a gigantic lie as Walter continues to feed the facade while Margaret begins churning out her paintings from behind closed doors, unable to let anyone know the truth that she’s the one with the paintbrush in hand. Margaret even has to keep the truth from her daughter Jane (played in her younger years by Delaney Raye, whose unique look suggests she was destined to star in a Burton movie).

Walter proves to be quite adept at selling himself, so the mysterious what-if scenario of whether or not Margaret’s paintings would have become such pop cultural icons without Walter’s business skills at least lurks in the background. But mainly, the movie concentrates on the couple’s slowly eroding relationship and the complexities of Walter’s fraudulent deceit. And since it’s mainly set in 50’s/60’s San Francisco, the movie provides some sumptuous rainbow imagery of everything from neon-lit streets to picture perfect supermarkets.

Freed of the need to create CGI fantasylands, Burton uses the digital effects more sparingly, more subtly to craft some of his prettiest images in years, bright and evocative. His primary focus is on his stars, though. The casting of Adams and Waltz is far from unexpected (their Margaret and Walter are just new shades of roles that the two actors are often hired to play), but Burton at least achieves his goal of pushing the onscreen partners to opposite ends of a spectrum.

As much as Adams downplays her performance, Waltz overplays his. The result is a tug-of-war that puts the characters at odds even before the cracks in their marriage start to really take hold. This allows Burton to build the conflict between the two in gradual stages. He doesn’t have the deftest touch, but he does a fine job of setting the couple up as a team with a common goal and then splitting them apart to create a clear hero/villain dichotomy.

It’s here that the casting at least makes sense. Rooting for Adams is easy, since she’s charming and smart and strong when she needs to be. Waltz is charming, too, and fun to watch at times, if not a bit exhausting, but he’s dialed up to 11 for the entire movie and so it’s easy to turn on him when the time comes because an overbearing sliminess soon overtakes all that charm.

Everyone else in the cast seems equally cast for predictability (Krysten Ritter as a snarkily supportive friend, Terence Stamp as a scowling art critic), but they work well enough to render the criticism somewhat moot. This is how Big Eyes operates. Not exactly refreshing in its approach, but refreshing nonetheless because it’s Burton calling the shots. Alexander and Karaszewski’s script isn’t on par with their sharpest work, but it still tells the story in a concise and interesting manner.

Throughout his career, Burton has generally told stories with men as the protagonists, ranging from Pee-Wee Herman to Batman to Ichabod Crane. Of his few titles with women in the lead hero role, he’s made one of his very best movies (“Beetlejuice”) and one of his absolute worst (“Alice in Wonderland”). Big Eyes falls somewhere in the middle, but ultimately on the side of good. We’re still a long ways off from the director’s glory days, from his towering creative peaks, but at least Big Eyes shows that he’s still capable of doing something a little different, with less effects and more feeling.

Tagged: artist , marriage , painter

You and I both know the truth. You just don't admit it.

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'Movie Review: Big Eyes (2014)' have 4 comments

January 3, 2015 @ 4:22 pm Koach

The longer I look at those big-eyed paintings the creepier they get.

January 3, 2015 @ 6:41 pm BC Primary

Even if it is middle of the road, I have to watch because a) Burton isn’t directing Johnny Depp in ghastly makeup and b) Burton is finally doing something other that doesn’t require Johnny Depp be in ghastly makeup.

January 8, 2015 @ 11:04 am wiseling

and yet strangely johnny depp in ghastly makeup is precisely what the film is missing…

January 3, 2015 @ 9:58 pm Richard

I don’t see any chemistry between Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz.

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An Artist Overlooked in Plain Sight

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Anatomy of a Scene | ‘Big Eyes’

Tim burton narrates a sequence from his film..

By A.O. Scott

Dec. 24, 2014

A horror movie tucked inside a domestic drama wrapped up in a biopic, Tim Burton’s “Big Eyes” tells the story of Margaret Keane , an artist whose characteristic style is summed up in the title.

Starting in the 1950s, Ms. Keane — who is still alive and who is played by Amy Adams with a whispery Tennessee accent and an air of patient melancholy — painted thousands of pictures of waiflike figures with sad faces and oversized peepers. In the 1960s, she was both famous and almost entirely unknown. Her work was everywhere, devoured by the public and scorned by critics. But fans and detractors alike believed that the author of that work was her husband, Walter, who hogged the spotlight while his wife stayed home with the pigments and the canvases.

How this arrangement came about — and how it fell apart — is Mr. Burton’s main concern. Margaret arrives in San Francisco in flight from a bad first marriage, accompanied by her daughter, Jane (Delaney Raye as a young child, Madeleine Arthur as a teenager). The world is an unfriendly place for a single mother, and the city, shot in bright, saturated colors (by Bruno Delbonnel), has a lurid creepiness that suggests Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” an impression underlined by Ms. Adams’s blond, slightly chilly vulnerability.

Walter Keane, speaking of creeps, seems at first to be an ebullient, free-spirited charmer. He seems that way to Margaret, anyway. The rest of us, recognizing Christoph Waltz, will suspect other, less amusing dimensions to the character. A Sunday painter who claims to have studied in Paris, Walter, who works in commercial real estate, encourages Margaret’s creativity and offers security for her and Jane, whose father is threatening to sue for custody. The new couple exhibit their work in a nightclub (owned by the great scene-stealer Jon Polito), and when Margaret’s forlorn children attract more attention than Walter’s Parisian street scenes, he starts to claim them as his own.

Big Eyes, Big Lies

The artist margaret keane surprised the cast of “big eyes” — and herself — by showing up at the premiere of the new movie based on her stranger-than-fiction life..

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Reviewed by: Nicole Granath CONTRIBUTOR


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lying and deception versus truth

What about feminism and women’s lib?

Margaret D. H. Keane (Wikipedia)

Walter Stanley Keane (Wikipedia)

Featuring	… … … … Terence Stamp … Danny Huston … Stephanie Bennett … Vanessa Ross … Jill Morrison … Heather Doerksen … James Saito … Andrew Airlie … Jon Polito … Elisabetta Fantone … Farryn VanHumbeck … Madeleine Arthur … David Milchard … Emily Bruhn … Matthew Kevin Anderson … Leela Savasta … Pomaika'i Brown … Fiona Vroom … Barclay Hope … Peter Kelamis … Bomber Hurley-Smith … Aaron Craven … Desiree Zurowski … Dylan Kingwell … Adam Reeser … Ran Wei … Delaney Raye … Connie Jo Sechrist … Julie Johnson … Jaden Alexander … Steven Wiig … Christina Myers … Andrea Bucko … Eliza Norbury … Traci Toguchi … Kari-Ann Wood … Tony Alcantar … Ariel Hart … Travis michael Myers … Kurt Cotton … Thomas Potter … Scotty Wood … David L. Schormann … Peter Dwerryhouse … Christine Reade … Guido Furlani … Ian Paterson … David Edward … Joe Bravo … Ryan Else … Dwight Taylor … Jock Armour … Rick Mischke … Laryssa Troniak … Tony Grat … Michael A. Lilly … Dyendis Davis-Jones … Robert Gagne (Robert 'Frenchy' Gagne) … Alan MacFarlane … Lear Howard …
Director
Producer
Distributor

“She created it. He sold it. And everyone bought it.”

A newly single mom, Margaret ( Amy Adams ) with a daughter to support, meets a charming, kind, and generous man named Walter ( Christoph Waltz ), who seems to be the prince of her dreams. Both looking for a new start, and both burgeoning artists, they quickly marry, going on a romantic honeymoon together in beautiful Hawaii.

However, upon returning to the mainland, Margaret discovers that her new husband’s charm is beginning to wear off. Although their shared passion for painting initially brought them together, it soon becomes clear that Walter Keane’s interest in art has more to do with business than pleasure. At first, Walter appears to be helping Margaret get her artwork noticed, while also selling some paintings of his own. But when Margaret’s “Big Eye” paintings become more popular with the public, Walter begins taking credit for his wife’s work. Walter claims that no one wants to buy “lady art,” and that without his wit and charm to close the deal, Margaret’s paintings would never sell.

Feeling coerced and without recourse, Margaret goes along with the lie , to her own emotional detriment. The lie also damages her relationship with her daughter, as she locks herself in her art studio and paints for hours on end, day after day. Sworn to secrecy by her husband, not even Margaret’s daughter is allowed to know the truth about who the real artist is. As the family acquires wealth and fame through Margaret’s increasingly popular paintings, Walter’s demands on Margaret only increase. Can the new car, bigger house, and celebrity friends quiet the fierce and ever-growing desperation Margaret feels inside?

Positive Elements

Margaret and her daughter share a close relationship throughout the film, although they become somewhat estranged for a time, due to Margaret’s secrecy regarding her paintings. When Margaret lies to her daughter, she feels convicted and goes to a priest to confess her sin . Margaret is not really seeking fame or riches with her artwork. She just wants to do what she loves, which is to paint. Also, Margaret doesn’t allow herself or her daughter to stay in an abusive situation, once it becomes clear that her relationship with Walter has escalated to that point.

The film does a good job of portraying a woman who starts off as naive and fearful, and how she eventually overcomes her feelings of helplessness and shame to do what’s right. There is no nudity in the film and little, if any, sexual content, and there are very few obscenities.

Negative Elements

One character is seen “flipping off” another character, and some curse words, including the f-word, are exchanged. In one scene, two characters get into a physical fight in a bar/club. In the beginning of the film, Margaret and her daughter are shown packing up their belongings and leaving Margaret’s first husband. An explanation is never really given, except that the husband was “smothering,” which doesn’t seem like a very good reason, in and of itself, for ending a marriage . Margaret jumps into her next marriage rather suddenly, which is probably not a very prudent idea. However, it is portrayed as a red flag in the movie.

Margaret allows her husband to lie to the public about being the artist behind her “Big Eye” paintings, and she goes along with his lie, as well. Although the truth is eventually brought to light, for a long time Margaret is too weak and fearful to be honest with the public, or her own daughter. The lie is portrayed as being wrong, though, and the fact that the truth will eventually come out is a strong theme in this movie.

The movie portrays Margaret’s redemption as coming through her conversion to Jehovah’s Witnesses , when two members of the Watchtower Society visit her home and share their beliefs with her. While many of the Scriptures shared in the movie are from our actual Bible, it is important to realize that Jehovah’s Witnesses are a cult. As Paul says in the New Testament,

“But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a Gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!”

We are not to accept other versions of the Gospel, which do not align with God’s Holy Word. Any other version of the Gospel that contradicts the Bible is actually a lie from Satan , and not the true Gospel at all.

Tips on Witnessing to Jehovah’s Witnesses (in our EffectiveEvangelism section

Why is Creation the best place to start in witnessing to Jehovah’s Witnesses?

How do Jehovah’s Witnesses’ teachings about Christ compare with Scriptures?

Violence: Moderate / Profanity: Heavy—“My G*d” (4), “hell” (6), “G*d-d*mn,” “For Chr*st’s sakes,” “For G*d’s sakes,” “Jesus,” “Christ,” “Good G*d,” and “Oh God,” “d*mn,” “f*** you,” s-words (4), SOB / Sex/Nudity: Moderate—passionate kiss, swim suits, cleavage, bare breasts in a painting, a sexual remark

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers .

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Music Review: Bright Eyes’ 'Five Dice, All Threes' contemplates death, the Mets and much more

Bright Eyes’ new album, titled “Five Dice, All Threes,” is a sound and word collage

Bright Eyes’ new album is a sound and word collage: confessional yet opaque, intimate yet anthemic — dense and dizzying and dark, yet catchy and engaging.

“Five Dice, All Threes,” which will be released Friday, is the trio’s first album of new songs since 2020. Frontman Conor Oberst’s familiar, distinctive punk-folk tremolo serves as the aural and spiritual anchor.

“I hate the protest singer staring at me in the mirror,” he sings on “Hate.”

Oberst is good at his job, though, as are his bandmates. Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott provide inventive accompaniment on instruments ranging from banjo and pedal steel to synthesizer and celeste. Electric guitars drenched in pedal effects are prominent in the lo-fi but intricate sonic patchwork, as is movie dialogue and a dice game.

Oberst had a hand in all the compositions, with help from Walcott and Alex Levine of the So So Glos. They draw from punk, power pop and classic rock, with sprinkles of jazz and hip-hop. It's an appropriately expansive setting for discourses on discontent, disillusion and death.

The album is not as relentlessly heavy as that sounds. The first song sports a whistling introduction worthy of Disney, and some of Oberst’s observations are similarly playful.

“You shouldn’t place bets on the New York Mets,” he sings on “Bells and Whistles.” Grim contemplations about mortality on “The Time I Have Left” are leavened by an ironic singalong verse that goes, “Sha la la la la la,” although a vocal contribution from the National’s Matt Berninger's baritone ensures the mood doesn’t get too bright.

The tunnel at the end of the light is a recurring topic. Cat Power’s ethereal backing vocals distinguish “All Threes,” which laments the toll of time, as does “Tiny Suicides,” which ends with sobbing. On the final song, “Tin Soldier Boy,” Walcott’s trumpet serenades Oberst’s repeated reminder that our days are numbered. Point taken.

Other subject matter includes Bud Light beer and the Bible, blown speakers and used amplifiers, cracks in the heart, bad dreams, artificial intelligence, aging and the weather.

“Hot in LA tonight,” Oberst sings on “Real Feel 105°,” seemingly referencing last week . He’s a town crier with the latest news, striving to make sense of it all.

For more AP reviews of recent music releases, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/music-reviews

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(Movie Review) 'Love in the Big City': heartfelt story of friendship, self-acceptance

By Woo Jae-yeon

SEOUL, Sept. 24 (Yonhap) -- Being "different" is often celebrated in words. But in reality, many still face exclusion for not fitting in.

The coming-of-age film "Love in the Big City" challenges this notion by following the 13-year journey of two endearing characters, Jae-hee (Kim Go-eun) and Heung-soo (Noh Sang-hyun).

Based on Park Sang-young's novel of the same name, it explores how their unique personalities and experiences set them apart in a conformist society and yet also highlights the power of embracing one's individuality in a world that often sidelines those who don't conform.

A still from "Love in the Big City" by filmmaker Lee Eon-hee is shown in this photo provided by Plus M Entertainment. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

A hard-drinker, heavy-smoker and frequent clubber, Jae-hee is a hopeless romantic who doesn't play games when it comes to love. Her unconventional and carefree lifestyle often places her at the center of unfounded gossip, drawing both admirers and haters alike.

In contrast to Jae-hee, Heung-soo keeps things to himself, living in constant fear of his sexuality being revealed. Ever since his mother accidentally saw him with another man, he has grown more withdrawn, making every effort to hide his true identity.

Then one day, Jae-hee unexpectedly catches Heung-soo kissing a man in a back alley in Itaewon, a neighborhood famous for its nightlife. To his surprise, Jae-hee reacts with complete ease, accepting him for who he is without hesitation, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

With that, the two form an unlikely friendship and soon become housemates, sharing a home and navigating life together.

A still from "Love in the Big City," provided by Plus M Entertainment, shows Jae-hee and Heung-soo, played by Kim Go-eun and Noh Sang-hyun, respectively. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

Directed by Lee Eon-hee, known for "Missing" (2016) and "...ing" (2003), the film depicts the lives of the two young people with a profound sense of calm and empathy. It invites the audience to reflect on snippets of their own lives and engage with the characters' choices without feeling pressured to judge them.

It effortlessly conveys the reassuring message that there is no right or wrong way to live life -- only the choices one makes. Regardless of how precarious the journey or decisions may be, ultimately it is one's precious life that deserves no judgment from others.

Kim Go-eun, the heroine of the smash-hit "Exhuma," perfectly embodies the fearless Jae-hee, a character unafraid to stand up to those who evaluate her without understanding her true nature. Noh Sang-hyun, known for his role as Baek Isak in Apple TV+'s "Pachinko," offers an equally impactful performance, skillfully portraying the complex inner struggles of a vulnerable gay man.

Some scenes featuring gay men making out in bars may be uncomfortable for some viewers. These moments, however, are not confined to movies; they reflect real life. If you find it difficult to accept this, that's okay -- just refrain from evaluating them, as the director seems to suggest.

The movie also challenges surface-level perceptions, suggesting there are often hidden stories or facets to everything and everyone, such as the violent tendencies exhibited by Jae-hee's lawyer boyfriend and the cowardly, mean-spirited behavior of a well-liked senior, or "sunbae," at school.

"Love in the Big City" had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month. It is set for local release on Oct. 2.

A poster for "Love in the Big City" is shown in this image provided by Plus M Entertainment. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

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Big Eyes movie review & film summary (2014)
Review: Big Eyes (2014)
Big Eyes
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Film Review: 'Big Eyes'
Movie review: 'Big Eyes'

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Big Eyes movie review & film summary (2014)
Entertaining in spots, obvious and irritating in others, with a one-note schticky performance from Christopher Waltz as Walter, Big Eyes is a strangely conventional entry in Tim Burton's filmography. The story itself is fascinating, though, which helps, and Amy Adams' quiet meticulous performance as Margaret Keane is a beautiful and emotional piece of work.
Big Eyes
In the late 1950s and early '60s, artist Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) achieves unbelievable fame and success with portraits of saucer-eyed waifs. However, no one realizes that his wife, Margaret ...
Big Eyes (2014)
Big Eyes: Directed by Tim Burton. With Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Krysten Ritter. A drama about the awakening of painter Margaret Keane, her phenomenal success in the 1950s, and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband, who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s.
Big Eyes
Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 17, 2019. Bernard Boo Way Too Indie. It's a smooth, dreamy-looking film on the surface, but its two leads, Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz, are so out of sync ...
Big Eyes Reviews
Big Eyes is based on the true story of Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz), who was one of the most successful painters of the 1950s and early 1960s. The artist earned staggering notoriety by revolutionizing the commercialization and accessibility of popular art with his enigmatic paintings of waifs with big eyes. The truth would eventually be discovered though: Keane's art was actually not created ...
Big Eyes Movie Review: Amy Adams in Tim Burton's Margaret Keane Biopic
The Keane story is a rich parable that deserves either a wilder or a more acute telling than Burton provides here. In the late '50s, when Big Eyes begins, Margaret Ulbrich (Amy Adams) is a ...
Big Eyes
Big Eyes is a 2014 American biographical drama film directed by Tim Burton, written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz.It is about the relationship between American artist Margaret Keane and her second husband, Walter Keane, who, in the 1950s and 1960s, took credit for Margaret's phenomenally popular paintings of people with big eyes.
'Big Eyes' Movie Review
Big Eyes could have been a dutiful Lifetime movie about the exploitation of women. That it becomes something scrappier, deeper and memorably comic and touching is due to the radiant Adams, who ...
Big Eyes (2014)
7/10. Domestic Abuse and Denigration. 3xHCCH 3 March 2015. "Big Eyes" was nominated under Comedy & Musical category during the last Golden Globe Awards. Lead actress Amy Adams even won the Best Actress prize for starring in it. While I was watching this film though, it turned out to be furthest from what I had in mind for a comedy.
'Big Eyes': Film Review
November 14, 2014 11:00am. Big Eyes asserts itself as a nifty sort of Tim Burton companion piece to his earlier Ed Wood, a consideration of self-imagined "artistic" lives that have less to do ...
Big Eyes Movie Review
Our review: Parents say (8 ): Kids say (11 ): Tim Burton teams with screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski for the first time since Ed Wood; the result is another amazing-but-true story that's delightful, prickly, and bizarre. BIG EYES avoids the seriousness of too many other biopics and stays true not only to the Keanes' story and ...
Big Eyes
Big Eyes not only delivers a unique and compelling story, but also a set of great lead performances and a subtle infusion of the director's own sensibilities and style.
Film Review: 'Big Eyes'
Film Review: 'Big Eyes'. Amy Adams plays the painter Margaret Keane in Tim Burton's colorful but shallow biopic. The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but they wind up revealing far too ...
Big Eyes
Movie Review. The movie's title doesn't lie. They're huge, these eyes—dark, shiny, saucer-size orbs set in the faces of sad little children. In the late 1950s and early '60s, long before the Western world had ever heard the word anime, these doe-eyed waifs painted by Keane were all the rage. Oh, the critics weren't enamored.
Big Eyes Review
7. Review scoring. good. Big Eyes is entertaining, yet it fails to really understand its core character. Adams' performance stands out. Burton's biopic tells the story of popular American artist ...
BIG EYES
BIG EYES is a biopic directed by Tim Burton about Margaret Keane and her famous paintings that became a phenomenon in the 1950s and 60s. The movie begins with Margaret (Amy Adams) leaving her abusive husband Frank and escaping to San Francisco with their daughter.
Big Eyes Review
Big Eyes never reconciles the tone between Adams' gentle, studied delivery and Waltz's cartoony outlandishness, and the depiction of what is a controlling, exploitative relationship ...
Big Eyes
December 23, 2014. A movie review by James Berardinelli. Tim Burton's name is on the credits but Big Eyes doesn't feel at all like the visually eccentric, gothic-tinged productions we normally expect from the offbeat director. Oh, there are some "Burton-esque" moments, like a vacation in Hawaii that's suffused in pastels and hyper-real colors.
Movie Review: Big Eyes (2014)
Big Eyes falls somewhere in the middle, but ultimately on the side of good. We're still a long ways off from the director's glory days, from his towering creative peaks, but at least Big Eyes shows that he's still capable of doing something a little different, with less effects and more feeling. Movie review of Big Eyes (2014) by The ...
'Big Eyes' Casts Another Side of Keane Art
1h 46m. By A.O. Scott. Dec. 24, 2014. A horror movie tucked inside a domestic drama wrapped up in a biopic, Tim Burton's "Big Eyes" tells the story of Margaret Keane, an artist whose ...
Big Eyes Summary, Trailer, Cast, and More
Cast. Big Eyes is a biographical drama directed by Tim Burton, focusing on artist Margaret Keane (Amy Adams), whose distinctive paintings featuring large-eyed children gained massive popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. The film explores her tumultuous relationship with her husband, Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz), who fraudulently claimed credit ...
Big Eyes (2014)
A newly single mom, Margaret with a daughter to support, meets a charming, kind, and generous man named Walter (Christoph Waltz), who seems to be the prince of her dreams.Both looking for a new start, and both burgeoning artists, they quickly marry, going on a romantic honeymoon together in beautiful Hawaii. However, upon returning to the mainland, Margaret discovers that her new husband's ...
Big Eyes
Trisha and Matt review the new film from Tim Burton, Big Eyes.GET OUR OFFICIAL APP: http://bit.ly/aIyY0wMore stories at: http://www.sourcefed.comFollow us on...
Music Review: Bright Eyes' 'Five Dice, All Threes' contemplates death
Bright Eyes' new album, titled "Five Dice, All Threes," is a sound and word collage Bright Eyes' new album is a sound and word collage: confessional yet opaque, intimate yet anthemic ...
(Movie Review) 'Love in the Big City': heartfelt story of friendship
SEOUL, Sept. 24 (Yonhap) -- Being "different" is often celebrated in words. But in reality, many still face exclusion for not fitting in. The coming-of-age film "Love in the Big City" challenges this notion by following the 13-year journey of two endearing characters, Jae-hee (Kim Go-eun) and Heung ...

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