Quadruple Feature Part 1: Big Eye & The Imitation Game

As the year comes to a close I finished up the year with four, yes FOUR, reviews. Three of them were the winners of the poll I sent out and the fourth film is one I saw with my sister earlier. First up...

Big Eyes
D: Tim Burton
W: Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski
S: Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Jon Polito, Krysten Ritter, Jason Schwartzman, Terence Stamp

Tim Burton brings us his latest film which is based on the real story of Margaret Keane (Amy Adams) and her famous Big Eye paintings, and the scam involving her now ex-husband, Walter (Christoph Waltz), stealing the credit for the paintings. I would give a spoiler warning but chances are you've probably looked up this story or you've seen the CBS Sunday Morning special about it. But I digress.

This is a film I've been really looking forward to seeing since I first heard about it earlier this year. It's a Tim Burton film that doesn't star Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp, it isn't a reboot or remake, and the script was written by the same guys who wrote the screenplay for not only my favorite Burton film but one of my favorite films of all time, Ed Wood. By the way, if you haven't seen Ed Wood, as soon as you're done reading this post go out and watch it!

How was it? It was pretty damn good. A fairly strong script, great performances, and did a pretty good job at portraying the psychological torment that Margaret Keane went through.

The biggest theme of the film is without a doubt lies and deception, which was the thing that probably bothered Margaret Keane the most in her career. At first she compromised with the lies just to help get money so she could help support her daughter, from her first marriage. But as the paintings grew more popular she had a hard time not only dealing the fact that her husband was stealing credit for something she created but she was lying to her daughter which bothered her more than anything else.

Now I'm not sure if this next part is intentional or I'm just over thinking but it seemed to me that there was a lot of focus on the character's eyes. Something about the lighting, or maybe it's the way it was shot, but it seemed to have focus on the eyes. Margaret points out in the film that she sees the eyes as, "windows to the soul," and you can get the emotions from the characters just by the look in their eyes. It could just be me.

This is probably Burton's strongest film since Sweeney Todd. I don't think the movie is as strong as Ed Wood but I do still recommend it.


The Imitation Game
D: Morten Tyldum
W: Graham Moore
S: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Mark Strong, Charles Dance, Allen Leech, Matthew Beard, Rory Kinnear

Another biography film, this time it's about the famous British mathematician Alan Turning (Benedict Cumberbatch). The movie tells of his achievements during World War II when he helped create a machine that decoded the German's signal codes. It also looks at bits of schoolboy days and his post-war life when he was arrested for tried for "gross indecency" aka being a homosexual.

As this film stands, well it is a very basic biography film about a guy that is worthy noting. The problem is the script. It does contain very similar tropes that appear in a lot of biography films. He's a loner, there's a disapproving authority figure, potential love interest, a rival who then becomes a friend etc. etc.

Also the script tells the story in a non-linear style. It starts off in the 50s then goes to WWII then to Turning's chilhood and keeps jumping around almost randomly. Maybe that's how it was done in the original book that the script is based around but it just seemed weird to me.

So why are people going nuts over it? Well I can say that it is pretty much due to the performances, mainly Benedict Cumberbatch. I am convinced that this man can do no wrong. Every moment with him is outstanding. He is able to make Turning sympathetic, frustrating, and portrays him as an actual person. So many biography films the creative team just make their subject matter an angel. But with this film I think we can credit Cumberbatch a lot with for the performance.

While it doesn't do anything grand or new with the script the film is still worth watching for the performances, mainly from Cumberbatch.