Movie Review: "Big Eyes"

Big Eyes (2014)

PG-13

2.5 Stars out of 5

Director                               Tim Burton
Writer                                  Scott Alexander, Larry Kraraszewski

Amy Adams                        Margaret Keane
Christoph Waltz                 Walter Keane
Danny Houston                 Dick Nolan

 

The question of what is art is a question that lingers in the minds of many, and it seems there are as many answers to the question. Tim Burton offers one opinion on the topic with his late 2014 movie, “Big Eyes”. “Big Eyes” tells the story of Margaret Keane in 1950’s/1960’s San Francisco. Margaret is devoted to her art of young children that have stylized “big eyes” in her paintings. That no one in the art world thought of her art as “art”, or that almost no one in 1950’s America could think of a woman (with few notable exceptions) as an artist provides the framework upon which Burton erects his own attempt of cinematic art. Like Margaret though, Burton comes up sadly short.

The movie begins with Margaret (Amy Adams) fleeing her suburban home with her daughter for a new life in North Beach, San Francisco. She hopes to launch her career as a painter in this famous art colony by trying to sell her various paintings of waifs with their puppies, their kittens, their large emotive eyes. She meets with universal failure until she meets Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) as he too attempts to sell his cityscape paintings depicting Paris’ West Bank. That Walter’s work is hardly less successful artistically is made clear later in the film as he tries to sell his work to local art galleries. That Walter’s nature is far different from Margaret’s is made equally clear as he prances and weaves tales to his potential customers in the park. Margaret silently witnesses Walter’s antics until the day when Walter turns his “charm” on Margaret. They meet, they date, they kiss, they get married.

As the new couple begins their life together, Walter comes up with a scheme to display their respective art on the walls of a nearby nightclub. Taking advantage of one woman’s interest in Margaret’s paintings, Walter’s claims the art as his own in order (he claims later to Margaret) to close the sale – “obviously” no one would believe any serious art could be done by a woman? Walter’s “big eye art” starts to gain traction with the local non-art critic influenced art buying public. In time through Walter’s scheming, Margaret’s paintings sold as Walter’s work become immensely popular. The attention her paintings are getting, the money they bring in and the lack of credit she receives begin a metamorphic effect on Margaret. After years of living in the shadows, she eventually comes forward to claim credit and to stand on her own.

Throughout the movie, both before her commercial success and afterwards, the Art world rejects Margaret’s paintings as art. One critic commenting that Margaret’s work reminded her of a submission to an advertisement at the back of a magazine exhorting readers to sign up for an art class by sending an example of their work. As untutored as I am in the nature of paintings with or without artistic merit, I could not but agree. Margaret’s work displays some understanding of the mechanics of working in oils or acrylics, but her composition is so simplistic and lacking in feeling except for what she hopes to display through her “children” mournful gazes, that I cannot think that she would be considered anything more than a skilled high school art student; but surely nothing more. However, as Andy Warhol (himself in the category of questionable artist in my opinion) comments at the beginning of the movie that “I think what Keane has done is terrific! If it were bad, so many people wouldn’t like it.” I cannot really argue this point, but it is an idea worth considering: is art best defined by a select group of people educated on the topic, or by the masses; is art elitist or egalitarian? I don’t have the answer, but I do love the question.

However, in the case of the artistic merits of Burton’s movie “Big Eyes”, there is I believe a much more clear answer. The movie is elevated by Adams’ careful and studied portrayal of woman taught by the events of her life to submit, to stay out of the way of the men around. And yet, as with any person, Margaret has her limits: she met them with her first husband and then again with Walter. Adams does an excellent job of acting with her face and body language to show both sides of these competing drives within her. Waltz on the other hand plays Walter as a one note scheming con man. He starts out at a medium level of falseness when he first meets Margaret and steadily ramps up his performance to near camp by the movie’s climax. This lack of tone control in the movie is added to a bizarre sequence in a check-out line at the supermarket where Margaret hallucinates that all about her have her paintings’ signature “big eyes”. Why is this scene even in the movie? Are we to believe that Margaret is suffering a nervous breakdown; it is far from clear. One further disruption to the flow of the movie comes in the form of a voice over provided by a local “newspaperman” Dick Nolan (Danny Houston). Nolan is in the movie as a character but also as a narrator. His performance as a co-conspirator with Walter is intelligent and useful to propel the story, but his disruptive comments as narrator add little and conflict with the emotions displayed in the movie.

“Big Eyes” raises an interesting topic in the form of the nature of art and of the role of woman in the late fifties America. It has excellent acting by Adams, a lovely song at the end by Lana Del Rey, and a very odd role played by the previously excellent Waltz (see “Inglourious Basterds” for a much better role and acting example by Waltz). But the lack of tone control, the lack of a story arc that delves more than superficially into the two themes under discussion force me to admit my disappointment in a director who has over the years has made me one of his biggest fans.

For Burton fans that haven’t yet seen them (I doubt there are many who haven’t), check out “Beetlejuice”, “Nightmare Before Christmas”, or “Edward Scissorhands”, these movies are amongst the iconic examples that give a great view into the mind of Tim Burton.