The Uncatchable Fish
Hello Dear Readers!
As you all know, there are always many ideas running through my brain about what story I would like to share with you guys. As you know I am a crazy movie buff, but the reason I like movies is that I love watching the connections between characters and their development with each other as they grow in love. That can be familial, romantic, and friendly love.
I won't lie when I say I am very emotional when it comes to movies and TV shows but ONLY if they make me FEEL the connection between characters and the chemistry is right. My dad likes to tease me because he thinks that I "love" all movies, but he is wrong (whether he likes to admit it or not). All this being said I like to make sure I am sharing movies and stories that you will all enjoy and giving you a look into my thoughts as I watch the movie because I think it will give you a new perspective.
This movie is one of my family's favorite movies because it is about the love story between a husband and a wife, but also the love between a father and his son. Big Fish is about Will Bloom trying to decipher through his father Edward's stories to determine what is real and what is fiction.
There are a lot of elements in this movie that I wish I could talk about but that would take too long and honestly the movie is beautiful on its own that I do not need to over-describe it. I am going to try not to spoil too much of the movie because I do hope, Dear Readers, that you find this movie and watch it on your own because trust me….you will not regret it.
To start the story we need to start with Edward Bloom and his love for his wife Sandra Templeton. This is where the story begins because everyone knows Will would not be alive if it were not for the love of his parents. Edward met Sandra at the circus when he was about 18 or 19 years old. It was love at first sight:
See that was love! Even though he had never truly met her he knew that she was going to be his wife. By the time he tracked down who she was, he found out that she was engaged to an old classmate of his from his hometown of Ashton, Alabama. Normally hearing news like this would break someone's heart… but not Edward instead he saw it as a challenge and never stopped fighting for the girl he loved.
Now some would say that it is wrong to chase after a woman if there is a ring on her finger or even if she is already taken, but I would not agree with you. My daddy always said, "The deal is not done until there is a ring on that finger." In many ways, an engagement ring is technically putting a ring on it but the deal is not sealed until there are vows before God and witnesses and the legal document is signed, so Edward was not fully in the wrong. In the end, Ed got beat up by Sandra's fiancé and Sandra decided to give her ex-fiancé his ring back and marry Edward.
This love lasted years and went through many hardships along the way. Especially in the first couple months of getting married Ed had to go to war and fight for the army. On one of his missions, he was believed to be dead and Sandra was heartbroken, but luckily he was not dead and he was able to make it back home to her. Other hardships included being on the road a lot because he was a traveling salesman and he wanted to raise money to get his wife a beautiful house with a white picket fence. Edward may not have been home a lot but he loved his wife and his son with all his heart that there was nothing that could take him away from them, and sometimes he would tell stories to make life events seem more exciting.
Fast forward a couple years and we still see Sandra and Ed being cute together always loving and caring toward each other:
This scene is one of my sibling's favorite scenes because it shows the love and oddness of their relationship. The fact that Sandra gets in the bathtub fully clothed with her husband just because she wants to be close to him and knows that she is about to lose him. There is so much beauty in that scene that it makes me cry every time.
Speaking of crying it is time to get to the main love factor of the movie, and that is the relationship between Will and Ed. To give you a bit of perspective, Edward is a storyteller and he has been telling stories his whole life that Will is tired of hearing the lies and just wants to know the truth of his father's life. Throughout his life, Will has heard his father's stories and as a kid, he loved hearing them, but as he got older they got boring and overdone. To Will, the stories became fake and he was getting frustrated because he did not know a single fact about his father's life. This caused a rift in their relationship that they got into a fight at his wedding reception and they did not speak for three years.
When Will got word that his dad was stopping chemo and he only had a little time left he and his wife Josephine head to Alabama to be with him during his last days. This was Will's last chance to find any truth to his father's life. As time goes on, different pieces of truth begin to unfold and come to the light and Will begins to see that his dad's love for him was true and even though the stories were over-exaggerated that doesn't mean that there wasn't true to them.
When Will is out looking for the truth he comes home to find his family missing and his dad's bed empty. He runs to the hospital to find out that his father has had a stroke and that he may not last the night. Will decides to stay with him so he is not alone, and it turns out this is the time he has felt the closest to his father.
When Edward wakes up in the middle of the night he asks Will to tell him about how he is going to die. Will is confused by this request but proceeds to tell his father a final story that wraps up his life. Will includes all of the characters from his father's stories and has them meet at the river so they can say their goodbyes as he releases his father.
The one thing I want you to take away from this clip Dear Reader is that WILL, the son that had a hard time believing in his father's stories, sitting in the hospital telling his father a story. We have come full circle and let me just say shout out to Tim Burton for being such a genius. Not only does this scene tug the heartstrings, but when you watch the full movie you will be able to know why this scene is so important. And you want to know the best part? In the end, during the real funeral scene, Will's story came true. All the people that he thought were fake from his father's stories showed up at the funeral, and Will was able to see firsthand the impact his father had on so many people.
Ugh!! I am crying just writing this post because there is so much to unpack and I am only scratching the surface. There is NO WAY anyone can fully describe this movie because it is just one that needs to be watched and felt. I wanted to share it with you, Dear Readers, because I wanted to introduce you to a wonderful movie and really encourage you guys to watch it because it is a classic.
Until then,
Peace Out Lovers!
