Film review: Big Eyes - Tim Burton's artist biopic takes light approach

Truth can be stranger than fiction. And if you don't believe this, consider the outrageous tale, told in Tim Burton's first biopic since 1994's Ed Wood, of the artist behind the sentimental portraits of saucer-eyed children that were ubiquitous in suburban American homes of the mid-20th century.

Credited for a time to Walter Keane, those pictures beloved by the populace — even while derided by critics as kitsch, or worse — turned out to have been painted by Margaret, Walter's wife from 1955 to 1965.

Big Eyes begins with Margaret (a blonde Amy Adams) walking out on her first husband and driving to San Francisco to begin a new life with her young daughter Jane (played first by Delaney Raye, then as a teenager by Madeleine Arthur). At a time when being a woman — never mind a divorcée with a child — put one at a professional and personal disadvantage, it seemed inevitable that Margaret would seek salvation in another man.

Enter Walter (Christoph Waltz), a silver-tongued property agent with artistic dreams that took him to Europe for a time. While he favours romanticised Paris streetscapes, Margaret focuses on portraits of wide-eyed waifs, for most of which Jane is the model. She takes to signing "Keane" on each one after she and Walter wed — both for the second time — in Hawaii.

Charmed by Walter's promise that "I'm going to take care of you girls", the still naive mother falls under the smooth talker's spell, even after he tells people that he is the Keane responsible for the images of big-eyed children that prove even more popular and profitable when printed on posters and cards.

Although it seems incredible in retrospect that so many people could believe for so long that the outwardly sunny — but clearly shallow — Walter would choose to paint portrait after portrait of sad little children whose eyes act as the windows into their deep, dark souls, this was indeed the case. And it undoubtedly helped that Margaret did not even dare to breathe the truth to her daughter or best friend DeeAnn (Krysten Ritter).

Eventually, however, Margaret decides she can't keep on living a lie — at which point, the story becomes more dramatic and then hilarious.

Big Eyes' intriguing story could have been presented in a more serious and darker manner, and there are those who would have preferred that the filmmakers had opted for that angle.

Instead, Burton and company (including scriptwriting duo Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszweski) opted for a brighter account, one that undoubtedly has the real Margaret Keane's blessing — even while bending the truth to make her story more entertaining. It will have many viewers coming out of cinemas with big smiles.

Big Eyes opens on January 8.