Dec 25, 2014
As the old saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But when artist Margaret Keane caused a sensation with her seemingly unending stream of paintings depicting sad-looking children with enormous eyes in the 1960s, another question arose: is art just a commodity that any name can be placed upon, or is it an inherent part of an artist’s expression from the soul?
Based on the true story of Keane’s battle with her husband Walter over whether to tell the world she created her paintings, or whether to let him take all the credit, and the hilariously riveting court battle that ensued, “Big Eyes” offers unique perspectives on modern art and its value or lack thereof, on American marriage at the cusp of the women's rights movement giving a wife the chance to speak up against unfairness in the home. Thanks to the unique vision of director Tim Burton, who has created unique cinematic worlds in everything from “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” and “Batman” to “Edward Scissorhands” and “Sleepy Hollow,” the movie is blessed with its own unique visual style as well.
The movie opens with Margaret (Amy Adams) on the run from a husband prior to Walter, taking all her prized possessions out of her house along with her young daughter, and fleeing for early-1960s San Francisco. As a single mom, she has few options to survive, and in addition to taking a dreary day job painting prefabricated designs on baby cribs, she paints portraits of passersby on weekends in city parks for practically pennies. She depicts all her subjects, no matter their age, race or gender, with giant eyes, and this unique and haunting style quickly earns her the attention of Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz), a fellow painter in the park.
When her ex-husband tracks her down and threatens to take her child away because she’s a single mom, Keane proposes to her after only their second date. Desperate yet charmed, she dives into her second marriage and soon, Walter notices that her paintings outsell his when he gets an indoor showing of his work at a restaurant. .
Seeing that she signs her paintings only as “Keane,” leaving out her own first name, Walter convinces Margaret that in their male-dominated times men can outsell women in painting and that she should do the work, but let him take the credit in the hopes that they can sell more. To the horror of the New York Times’ art critic and the surprise of their friends and even themselves, the paintings become a sensation, making the Keanes millionaires.
But money doesn’t buy happiness for long. Walter only gets more greedy with every breath, and forces Margaret to paint constantly in tiny rooms, making her feel imprisoned. When Jehovah’s Witnesses missionaries impress her with their message against lying and stealing, she becomes a member and decides to wage war in court for her good name, reputation and fortune.
That final courtroom battle is incredibly entertaining and includes some of the funniest moments in a movie all year – and as a major bonus for people with taste and believers, it achieves its enormous laughs without one smutty joke. The movie is rated PG-13 for basically one F word, as Margaret’s best friend leaves the Keanes’ house screaming at Walter, and less than 10 utterances of any other lesser swear words or uses of God’s or Jesus’ name in vain.
There is a briefly intense scene of a drunk Walter throwing lit matches at the carpet surrounding Margaret and her daughter in an attempt to chase them out of a locked room, but no other violence and no sex or nudity. One hopes that many other comedy screenwriters will take heed of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski’s brilliant script and learn from it that crassness does not equal comedy.
Christoph Waltz takes on his most “normal” American role to date, following his two Best Supporting Actor Oscar wins playing an evil Nazi in “Inglorious Basterds” and the oddball friend of a former slave in “Django Unchained.”. As Walter Keane, he is an outright marvel to behold – a charming liar and manipulator who can alternately be the funniest or the angriest guy in a room.
But Amy Adams is the real star as Margaret, and has to achieve a lot of acting ground while being relatively sedate. After all, she’s trapped in an era when women had few chances to speak up for themselves, and she felt the need to wall up her intense emotions. Yet Adams is compelling to watch with her steely-eyed gaze, and when she finally starts to crack her perfect façade, her comedic bite is also entertaining to watch.
Overall, “Big Eyes” brings to life an odd piece of American pop culture history that has largely been forgotten, and the entire team behind it manages to do so with the utmost of class, restraint and good taste. It is perfectly fine viewing for teens and adults, and should make for some interesting discussions on the perennial questions of “what is art?” and the balance between art and commerce.