Big Eyes

Plot: Margaret (Amy Adams) is a starving artist in LA, and she meets fellow artist Walter Keen (Larry Kraszewski) who she promptly marries. Walter takes Margaret's paintings of waifs with BIG EYES  to shows claiming to be the artist. Walter is a great promoter and salesman, and soon the paintings are popular and they get rich.

Margaret is resentful that the world thinks that Walter is the artist while she is unnoticed, so after while they divorce. [MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW] In time, she goes public saying that she is the real artist. Ultimately this is decided in a court in the final scene.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Big Eyes  play on two levels -- on one level it is a situation comedy with funny scenes created by Walter's outrageous promotions and Margarets fuming rage. On the other level, it is a feminist fable that reminds us how primitive life was as recently as the 1950s.  (The Imitation Game was similar in that the primitiveness of 1940s Britain was a main theme.) 

Waltz's Keene is a consumate salesman, and he is grossly over promoting himself from the beginning. This makes him insincere and phony, and this was a desired effect because this was a comedy. A problem with the film is that Walter is the only character playing a comedy, and the others are in a light drama. I could have used more sincerity from Walter so we understood him better. 

Amy Adams is serious thoughout, and we get to see some solid dramatic acting from her -- a lot of bemused frowns and a little stern resolve. I would have liked her to be less subdued, but her passive nature was probably needed to advance the story believably. 

It has a good sound track with songs by Lana Del Rey and Danny Elfman, and a few clever images especially as the relationship breaks up. 

Art fraud has been with us for centuries, but his movie also pays as a husband who systematically took advantage of his wife. In this case, Walter may have been a life-long grifter, but Big Eyes has a broader theme about the exploration of women in pre-feminist society; although working class women are probably more exploited after all  Margaret does end up with a house in Hawaii. 

Cast: Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz

Directed by: Tim Burton, who is a collector of Margaret Burton's art

Rating: 3.0 stars -- a well made picture with a message and a story. Not funny enough as a comedy, with too few deep characters for a drama. 

More: Here is a Bing image search for more paintings. They used actual Margaret Keene images in the movie. 

Even More: Here is the real Margaret Keene at 87 years old.