Big eyes with little disappointment. Finally arriving on home video and digital form, it has been a while since Tim Burton has drifted away from the macabre and Gothic style he typically uses in most of his features. To the best of my knowledge, his last prevalent film outside this genre was Big Fish back in 2003. Yes, over 10 years ago! And frankly, I'm glad to see it. Seeing as Frankenweenie performed less than average and Dark Shadows was a complete flop, it is nice to see Tim Burton mix it up.

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            The story is based on true events about artist Margaret Keane and her popularity in the 1950's when she painted portraits of people with abnormally large eyes. The one issue; her husband claimed credit for the paintings for over a decade. The movie takes what could easily become a very mundane subject matter and makes it interesting by focusing on the life of the people involved in the controversy.

 

          Amy Adams playing Margaret does a magnificent job at portraying an innocent, fragile, very naive woman who falls hopelessly in love with the very manipulative and convincing Walter Keane, played by Christoph Waltz. Adams winning the Golden Globe for best female performance clearly is the glue that holds everything together in this film. Although, Waltz was nominated for a Globe as well, however, and it's not that Waltz is bad, he just doesn't seem to take on the life of anything different than roles he's played in the past. And even though mesmerizing  in this film, doesn't solely stand out on his own the way Adam's does.

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          One minor flaw I had with the film is its linear storytelling. Other than a brief glimpse into the future at the beginning of the film seeing Margaret leave her house with her daughter and a packed suitcase, there really isn't any other interesting edits. It's pretty much straight forward and moves chronologically through the real life events. This isn't necessarily bad, it can just become a tad bit boring when there was no significant build up to the climax. The scene containing the climax toward the end of the film, when Margaret is willing to hold her husband accountable for his fraud could have been placed intermittently throughout moments in the film to build more tension and create a bigger payoff in the end, as to how huge a fraud this was.

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          Overall, solid acting performances with an interesting subject matter, make for one of 2014's late release surprises and worth checking out.

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            3 out of 4 stars for Big Eyes.