Big Eyes

Big Eyes is the unusual true story of painter Margaret Keane and her husband Walter rising to notoriaty in the art world. Margaret painted, but Walter took credit for it in order to "market" and sell the paintings. This works great, for a while, until things inevitably snowball out of control.

This movie is directed by Tim Burton and stars Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams in the leads.

Big Eyes has charm. The visual style is very vivid, bright, and colorful. It echoes the sensibilities of the 50's and 60's, when the story takes place. I liked some of Tim Burton's visual choices, like when some of the television shows the characters watch are in an obvious black-and-white with an exaggerated fish eye lens effect. It doesn't detract, but adds to the personality of this movie.

It is also fun to see Margaret Keane's strange big eyes paintings and Tim Burton's fondness for them is obvious.  I particularly enjoyed one scene in a grocery store. ( I won't spoil it, but it was visually very clever.)

Big Eyes does poke some fun at the art world, as Jason Schwartzman plays  a 60's art gallery owner who is a little too jaded for his own good. Schwartzman seems to be playing older than his real age, and it came across a little bit off. I still like him, though, and it was fun to see him in this.

Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz are great in the lead roles. Waltz particularly shines as the charismatic, energetic, and half-crazy Walter Keane who is thirsty for glory and fame.

Aside from dealing with the art scene, Big Eyes is mostly about male and female inequality in the 50's and 60's. One character in the movie refers to Margaret's paintings as "lady art", which I found funny and laughably inappropriate today. It's about how women weren't always taken seriously in that era, and the consequences of prejudice against female artists.

Overall, I liked Big Eyes. I give it a hearty 3 stars.