''Big Eyes'' is a 2014
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
biographical
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), ''Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...
, written by
Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
Scott Alexander (born June 16, 1963) and Larry Karaszewski (; born November 20, 1961) are an American screenwriting team. They are best known for writing postmodern biopics with larger-than-life characters. They coined the term "anti-biopic" t ...
, and starring
Amy Adams
Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress. Known for both her comedic and dramatic roles, she has been featured three times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses. She has received various accolades, incl ...
and
Christoph Waltz
Christoph Waltz (; born 4 October 1956) is an Austrian-German actor. Since 2009 he has been primarily active in the United States. His accolades include two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two British Academy Film Awards and two Sc ...
. It is about the relationship between American artist
Margaret Keane
Margaret D. H. Keane (born Peggy Doris Hawkins, September 15, 1927 – June 26, 2022) was an American artist known for her paintings of subjects with big eyes. She mainly painted women, children, or animals in oil or mixed media. The work achi ...
and her second husband,
Walter Keane
Walter Stanley Keane (October 7, 1915 – December 27, 2000) was an American plagiarist who became famous in the 1960s as the claimed painter of a series of widely reproduced paintings depicting vulnerable subjects with enormous eyes. The paint ...
, who, in the 1950s and 1960s, took credit for Margaret's phenomenally popular paintings of people with big eyes.
The film had its world premiere in New York City on December 15, 2014, and was released in the U.S. by
The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America prior ...
on December 25, 2014. It was met with generally favorable reviews, with particular praise given to the performances of Adams and Waltz and performed moderately well at the box office, grossing $29 million worldwide against the budget of $10 million. Adams won the
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
for
Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical and received a nomination for the
BAFTA for
Best Actress in a Leading Role
The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. ...
. Waltz was also nominated for a
Golden Globe for his performance, and
Lana Del Rey
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Her music is noted for its cinematic quality and exploration of tragic romance, glamour, and melancholia, with frequent ...
received a
Golden Globe nomination for the film's title song, "
Big Eyes
''Big Eyes'' is a 2014 American biographical drama film directed by Tim Burton, written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz. It is about the relationship between American artist Margaret Keane a ...
".
Plot
In the 1950s,
Margaret Ulbrich leaves her then-husband and takes her young daughter Jane to
North Beach,
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, where she gets a job painting illustrations at a furniture factory. While doing portraits at an outdoor art show, she meets
Walter Keane
Walter Stanley Keane (October 7, 1915 – December 27, 2000) was an American plagiarist who became famous in the 1960s as the claimed painter of a series of widely reproduced paintings depicting vulnerable subjects with enormous eyes. The paint ...
, who sells paintings of Parisian street scenes but makes his money in real estate. They soon become close friends. Margaret is distraught when her husband asks for custody of Jane as part of the divorce settlement. Walter proposes, and they marry and honeymoon in
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
. She retains custody of Jane.
Unable to get his or Margaret's paintings into a fine art gallery, Walter convinces
Enrico Banducci
Enrico Banducci (born Harry Charles Banducci; February 17, 1922 – October 9, 2007) was an American impresario. Banducci operated the hungry i nightclub in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, where he launched the careers of The Kingston ...
, the owner of
a popular jazz club, to rent him some wall space to exhibit their work. He is frustrated when the designated space is in the back by the bathrooms. He fights with Banducci and puts the man's head through one of Margaret's canvases. This becomes a front-page story in a local newspaper, which packs the club with people curious to see the art that made grown men fight. Dick Nolan, a celebrity gossip columnist, wants to know more about the artwork, but proceeds to ask about Margaret's paintings of young girls with big eyes. Walter goes along with the misunderstanding, failing to clarify that they are Margaret's creation. Afterward, he shows Margaret how much money he made selling her work and suggests they team up, with her staying at home painting and him taking credit and handling publicity and sales.
Walter opens his own gallery selling Margaret's art, and eventually hits on the idea of making cheap reproductions of Margaret's works, which sell in huge numbers. The family moves into a mansion. Walter spends his time hobnobbing with celebrities while Margaret is stuck at home, feeling increasingly isolated. He even makes Margaret lie to Jane about who is doing the paintings.
One day, she finds a crate full of paintings of Parisian street scenes, all signed "S. CENIC". She realizes that she has never actually seen Walter paint, and discovers that he has been painting over the name of the original artist and claiming these paintings as his own. When confronted, he says he always wanted to be an artist but never had the talent.
Disillusioned, Margaret indicates that she is losing her interest in continuing the ruse, so Walter threatens to have her killed. Later, he tells her of his plan to get a painting displayed at the upcoming
New York World's Fair and demands Margaret paint her "masterpiece". Jane sneaks into the studio when Margaret is working on the huge painting, ''Tomorrow Forever'', and says she already knew Margaret was really the artist.
At a party, Walter becomes angry after reading
John Canaday
John Edwin Canaday (February 1, 1907 – July 19, 1985) was a leading American art critic, author and art historian.
Early life and education
John Canaday was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, to Franklin and Agnes F. (Musson) Canaday. His family mov ...
's scathing review of ''Tomorrow Forever'', which leads the Fair not to exhibit the painting, and confronts the critic. At home, he drunkenly blames Margaret for the failure. He throws lit matches at her and Jane, who escape and lock themselves in the studio. As he continues to throw lit matches and nearly sets the house on fire, they run away from home.
One year later, Margaret and Jane have settled in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
. Walter says he will only grant Margaret a divorce if she signs over the rights to every painting and produces 100 more. Initially, Margaret agrees, but her growing interest in the
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...
convinces her of the importance of honesty. She finally signs a batch of paintings with her own name. Later, on a Hawaiian radio show, she reveals that she is the real artist behind the "big eyes" paintings, which makes national news. Nolan publishes Walter's claims that Margaret is delusional. On Jane's suggestion, Margaret sues both Walter and Nolan's newspaper for
slander and libel
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
.
At the trial, the judge immediately dismisses the libel suit against the newspaper, and Walter is left to defend himself against slander. He botches his defence, even mimicking in court what he has gathered from watching Perry Mason episodes on TV. When he proceeds to cross-examine himself as a witness, the judge becomes fed up and directs both Margaret and Walter to create a painting in court to prove who the real artist is. Whereas Margaret paints steadily, Walter stalls before claiming his arm hurts too much to hold a paintbrush. Margaret wins the lawsuit and a fan asks her to sign a copy of Walter's coffee table book.
The film ends with text stating that Walter continued to insist he was the true artist until his death, though he never painted again, and that he died in poverty. Margaret eventually moved back to San Francisco, where she opened a new gallery, and still paints every day.
Cast
*
Amy Adams
Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress. Known for both her comedic and dramatic roles, she has been featured three times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses. She has received various accolades, incl ...
as
Margaret Keane
Margaret D. H. Keane (born Peggy Doris Hawkins, September 15, 1927 – June 26, 2022) was an American artist known for her paintings of subjects with big eyes. She mainly painted women, children, or animals in oil or mixed media. The work achi ...
*
Christoph Waltz
Christoph Waltz (; born 4 October 1956) is an Austrian-German actor. Since 2009 he has been primarily active in the United States. His accolades include two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two British Academy Film Awards and two Sc ...
as
Walter Keane
Walter Stanley Keane (October 7, 1915 – December 27, 2000) was an American plagiarist who became famous in the 1960s as the claimed painter of a series of widely reproduced paintings depicting vulnerable subjects with enormous eyes. The paint ...
*
Danny Huston
Daniel Sallis Huston (born May 14, 1962) is an Italian-born American actor and film director. A member of the Huston family of filmmakers, he is the son of director John Huston and the half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston.
He is known for h ...
as Dick Nolan
*
Krysten Ritter
Krysten Alyce Ritter (born December 16, 1981) is an American actress and model. She came to prominence when she appeared as Jane Margolis in the AMC drama series '' Breaking Bad'' (2009–2010) and its spinoff film '' El Camino'' (2019). She the ...
as Dee-Ann
*
Jason Schwartzman
Jason Francesco Schwartzman (born June 26, 1980) is an American actor and musician.
Schwartzman made his film debut in Wes Anderson's 1998 film '' Rushmore'', and has gone on to appear in six other Anderson films: ''The Darjeeling Limited'' (20 ...
as Ruben
*
Terence Stamp
Terence Henry Stamp (born 22 July 1938) is an English actor. Stamp is known for his sophisticated villain roles. He was named by ''Empire Magazine'' as one of the 100 Sexiest Film Stars of All Time in 1995. He has received various accolades inc ...
as
John Canaday
John Edwin Canaday (February 1, 1907 – July 19, 1985) was a leading American art critic, author and art historian.
Early life and education
John Canaday was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, to Franklin and Agnes F. (Musson) Canaday. His family mov ...
*
Jon Polito
Jon Raymond Polito (December 29, 1950 – September 1, 2016) was an American character actor. In a film and television career spanning 35 years, he amassed over 220 credits. Notable television roles included Detective Steve Crosetti in the fi ...
as
Enrico Banducci
Enrico Banducci (born Harry Charles Banducci; February 17, 1922 – October 9, 2007) was an American impresario. Banducci operated the hungry i nightclub in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, where he launched the careers of The Kingston ...
* Delaney Raye as a Young Jane
*
Madeleine Arthur
Madeleine Arthur (born March 10, 1997) is a Canadian and American actress.
Career
Arthur portrayed young Willa Warren in the American Broadcasting Company, ABC drama series ''The Family (2016 TV series), The Family'' and Jane Keane, the daught ...
as Older Jane
*
James Saito
James Tomio Saito (born March 6, 1955) is a Japanese-American actor of stage, motion pictures, and television.
Saito is best known as the original Shredder in ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'', Dr. Chen in the ABC series ''Eli Stone'', Harry Kim i ...
as Judge
*
Dylan Kingwell
Dylan Kingwell (born July 6, 2004) is a Canadian actor. He is known for playing the roles of Duncan and Quigley Quagmire in the Netflix television series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' from 2017 to 2019. He is also known for having portrayed ...
as Boy at Art Show (in the park)
Production
Writers
Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
Scott Alexander (born June 16, 1963) and Larry Karaszewski (; born November 20, 1961) are an American screenwriting team. They are best known for writing postmodern biopics with larger-than-life characters. They coined the term "anti-biopic" t ...
negotiated with
Margaret Keane
Margaret D. H. Keane (born Peggy Doris Hawkins, September 15, 1927 – June 26, 2022) was an American artist known for her paintings of subjects with big eyes. She mainly painted women, children, or animals in oil or mixed media. The work achi ...
over her life rights and wrote ''Big Eyes'' as a
spec script
A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned and unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or ...
. In October 2007, it was announced that development was moving forward with Alexander and Karaszewski directing their script, and nightclub operator Andrew Meieran fully financing, through his Bureau of Moving Pictures banner, the under-$20 million budget.
Kate Hudson
Kate Garry Hudson (born April 19, 1979) is an American actress and businesswoman. She has received numerous awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award and a Satellite Award, as well as nominations f ...
and
Thomas Haden Church
Thomas Haden Church (born Thomas Richard McMillen; June 17, 1960) is an American actor. After starring in the 1990s sitcom ''Wings'' and playing the lead for two seasons in ''Ned & Stacey'' (1995–1997)'','' Church became known for his film work, ...
were set to star, and filming was to begin in June 2008, before being pushed back for reasons related to a new
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...
contract.
In September 2010, it was announced that
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), ''Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...
had become involved with the film as a producer. Principal photography was scheduled to start in April 2012, with
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actress and producer. The recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, she ...
and
Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian-American actor. He is one of the highest-grossing film actors of all time, with a worldwide box-office gross of over billion.
He began his career starring in the Canadian teen ...
attached to star. By 2013, Burton had taken over directing and ''Big Eyes'' was set up at
The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America prior ...
, with
Amy Adams
Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress. Known for both her comedic and dramatic roles, she has been featured three times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses. She has received various accolades, incl ...
and
Christoph Waltz
Christoph Waltz (; born 4 October 1956) is an Austrian-German actor. Since 2009 he has been primarily active in the United States. His accolades include two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two British Academy Film Awards and two Sc ...
starring. Filming began in July 2013.
''Big Eyes'' is Burton's first film since ''
Edward Scissorhands
''Edward Scissorhands'' is a 1990 American fantasy romance film directed by Tim Burton. It was produced by Burton and Denise Di Novi, written by Caroline Thompson from a story by her and Burton, and starring Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Anthony Mi ...
'' (1990) to be edited by someone other than
Chris Lebenzon
Christopher Lebenzon is an American film editor with more than 36 film credits dating from 1976. The films he has edited have grossed over 10 billion dollars worldwide.
He has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for the f ...
, who was busy with ''
Maleficent
Maleficent ( or ) is a fictional character who appears as the main antagonist in Walt Disney Productions' 16th animated feature film, ''Sleeping Beauty'' (1959). She is represented as an evil fairy and the self-proclaimed " Mistress of All Evil ...
'' the same year.
Soundtrack
It was reported in November 2014 that singer
Lana Del Rey
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Her music is noted for its cinematic quality and exploration of tragic romance, glamour, and melancholia, with frequent ...
would contribute with two original songs to the soundtrack, and the songs "
Big Eyes
''Big Eyes'' is a 2014 American biographical drama film directed by Tim Burton, written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz. It is about the relationship between American artist Margaret Keane a ...
" and "I Can Fly", which Lana Del Rey wrote and performed, were leaked in December 2014. The soundtrack album and both songs were officially released on December 23, 2014.
Reception
Box office
The film earned $3 million during its opening weekend and grossed $14.5 million in North America, and $14.8 million internationally, for a worldwide total gross of $29.3 million.
Critical reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, ''Big Eyes'' holds an approval rating of 72%, based on 190 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10; the site's consensus reads: "Well-acted, thought-provoking, and a refreshing change of pace for Tim Burton, ''Big Eyes'' works both as a biopic and as a timelessly relevant piece of social commentary". On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a score of 62 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
''
The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
''s
Steven Rea
Steven Rea (also known as Steven X. Rea) is an American journalist, film critic, awarded the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, praising Adams' and Waltz's performances and the film's themes.
Peter Travers
Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...
of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' criticized the film's uneven tone and pacing, but admitted it was a "heartfelt tribute to the yearning that drives even the most marginalized artist to self expression no matter what the hell anyone thinks."
Awards and nominations
See also
*
"Big Eyes" (song)
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Eyes
2014 films
2010s biographical films
American biographical films
Biographical films about painters
American courtroom films
2010s feminist films
Films featuring a Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe winning performance
Films scored by Danny Elfman
Films directed by Tim Burton
Films set in 1958
Films set in 1963
Films set in 1964
Films set in 1965
Films set in Honolulu
Films set in San Francisco
Films shot in San Francisco
Films shot in Vancouver
North Beach, San Francisco
Films with screenplays by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
Cultural depictions of American women
Cultural depictions of 20th-century painters
Ophthalmic conditions emphasizing symbolism
American feminist films
The Weinstein Company films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films