Big Eyes

Tim Burton's Big Eyes is a fascinating docudrama about Margaret Keane.  She was the artist responsible for all those paintings featuring children with enormous, sad-looking eyes that were popular for a while.  What the film tells us is how she was under the control of her husband, Walter, who not only took credit for his wife's work, but was a man controlled by his own out of control ego and desire for attention.

The story kicks off in 1958, where Margaret (played by Amy Adams) is fleeing the stifling home life of her first husband.  This is something women seldom did back in the day.  She packs up her belongings and young daughter Jane (Delaney Raye) into a car, and makes her way to San Francisco to start a life of her own.  While trying to make some money as a street portrait artist, she runs into the flamboyant and charismatic landscape artist, Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz).  Walter quickly falls in love with her art, and falls in love with her just as fast.  They begin a whirlwind romance, and are married a short time later.   As they start to build their lives together, Walter continues to try to make it in the art world.  He manages to get some of his paintings, as well as Margaret's paintings, displayed on the wall of a local nightclub.  But when Margaret's work starts to get all the attention and interest, he begins to claim responsibility for painting the sad-eyed children portraits.

Margaret is naturally stunned that Walter would do this to her, but he is able to sweet talk her into going along with the lie, saying that women artists just don't sell as well, and that they will share the wealth together.  She reluctantly agrees, and continues to churn out countless paintings, while her husband gets all the fame, attention and even some ridicule from some of the local art dealers and critics who view the popular works as "kitsch".  Walter, being the money-driven businessman, begins to come up with schemes to make even more money by producing cheap replicas of the work, and reproducing them on postcards to great financial wealth.  The Keanes become wealthy, but Margaret feels increasingly isolated and unappreciated, while Walter becomes further delusional to the point that at times he seems to think he really is responsible for the paintings. 

Big Eyes is the story of how Margaret almost lost her identity as she was forced to live a lie, and spend most of her time locked away in a private room, creating hundreds of pictures, while not being able to enjoy a single moment of her success.  She is initially pulled into the idea by Walter's charm and sweet talk, but over time, he becomes increasingly erratic and even violent toward her.  He becomes so consumed with success that he is willing to do anything to hold onto it, even if it means shutting his wife away from the rest of the world so that no one will find out the truth.  Margaret, meanwhile, just wants to be recognized for her work.  She starts exploring with other styles of painting so that she can create an artistic identity of her own, which makes Walter feel threatened.  Ultimately, Margaret does find the strength to again grab her daughter, pack up her things, and leave her husband. 

This is the point where the film really gets interesting, as Margaret attempts to prove to the world that she was the one responsible for the paintings that her husband took credit for.  I don't want to say too much here, but the ensuing courtroom scenes that result from this contains some of the best "truth is stranger than fiction" moments I have seen in a docudrama in a while.  When we witness Walter's legal actions in the courtroom to try to prove that he is the artist, I was almost certain that screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski had made it up, but apparently they did not.  True or not, it's one of the biggest laugh out loud moments I've had at a movie in a while.  If anything, these moments get to show off Waltz's range in his performance here, as he can be charming and sincere one minute, violent and off the handle the next, and an almost comic lunatic moments later.  Amy Adams has the less flashy role as Margaret, but she does do a good job playing a woman oppressed who eventually finds the ability to speak for herself.

This is a pretty straight forward movie for director Tim Burton, who is usually more attracted to the weird and the fantastical.  Sure, the "big eyes" paintings seem to be very much in his realm, but really the only thing that stands out as belonging to the director's style is the pitch-perfect depiction of life, art and fashion in the late 50s/early 60s.  This is the time that the director grew up in, and he's shown a passion for the look and style of the era in some of his past films.  Here, he nails the period details perfectly.  I also loved the performance he gets out of Terrance Stamp, as the New York Times art critic.  Stamp's icy and high brow performance is kind of like a combination of the theater critic from this year's Birdman, and the food critic from Pixar's Ratatouille.  I actually think that the movie, good as it is, would have been even better with more of his character.

No matter how much of the film may be true, Big Eyes is captivating stuff, and makes me want to look more into the real story.  It's not only a fascinating story, but it reminds us that not too long ago, women artists were seen as being inferior, and often had to hide behind their male counterparts, or make up a man's name for their art.  Walking out of the film, I had to wonder how many other women shared Margaret's story.  Probably more than I would like to imagine.

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