Big Eyes

Do you remember those kitschy “big-eyed waif” paintings that were popular in the early 1960s? They were created by an artist named Keane—and the stranger-than-fiction backstory is fascinating. Imperious Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) was a master of merchandising, commercializing his wide-eyed, innocent kid portraits—but he didn't actually paint them; his wife Margaret (Amy Adams) did, setting up a colossal lie that fooled the entire art world. Leaving her first abusive husband, Margaret fled with her young daughter Jane to San Francisco, where she sold charcoal portraits for a dollar or two at outdoor art fairs. Then she met insistently charming Walter, who told her he studied in Paris, and chided her: “You undervalue yourself.” After they married, fast-talking Walter manipulated his naïve, gullible wife into allowing him to sell her work under his name, claiming that they could never achieve fame and fortune unless she hid the truth that she was the artist. Insecure and isolated, Margaret eventually left Walter, moving to Honolulu, where Jehovah's Witnesses encouraged her to expose the fraud and take Walter to court. In this dramedy, director Tim Burton uses Walter's megalomaniacal dominance and Margaret's submissiveness to represent gender barriers that were still mostly prevalent in that era. Adams sensitively captures Margaret's timidity, reticence, and complicity in her own victimization, while Waltz exudes frenzied exuberance and smug persuasiveness. Danny Huston narrates as San Francisco Examiner columnist Dick Nolan, while Terence Stamp plays New York Times art critic John Canaday. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “making-of” featurette (22 min.). Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are “Q&A Highlights” with the cast and crew (34 min.), and a bonus UltraViolet copy of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an entertaining true-life story.] (S. Granger)