Big Eyes

Director Tim Burton turns his sorcerer's sights on this real-life story, adding a smattering of the fantastic to a tale of fraud and female subjugation in the 1950s and 60s. Amy Adams stars as artist Margaret Keane, whose paintings of doe-eyed children were phenomenally successful, and Christoph Waltz plays her exuberant conman husband, manipulating her in order to take credit for her work, and thus compromising her identity. Burton's directorial style is a good visual match for the subject matter - the film has the soft, cartoonish look of one of Keane's paintings. It's kitsch and amusing, albeit shallow, and trivialises the abuse that Margaret must endure. The script more generally tends toward the blunt, with Danny Huston's narration over-explanatory and an over-the-top performance by Waltz that builds to a cringe-making courtroom appearance. While all around her is broad-brush, Adams acts with bewitching delicacy to anchor the film. What Burton's approach most lacks is insight - big eyes don't see too deeply - but it's still a fascinating story told with flair.