Big eyes see through lies

This brilliant biographical film tells the story of Margaret Keane (Amy Adams) who leaves an oppressive marriage in 1958 to take on the world of art with nothing more than her wits, her drawings of children with big eyes and her young daughter Jane at her side.

Margaret arrives in North Beach, San Francisco, where she gets a job painting illustrations at a furniture factory to support herself and Jane.

However, it is her work at weekends in the park that changes her life forever.

While drawing quick sketches of people in the park she is seduced by Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) with whom she begins a relationship, which soon leads to marriage.

Margaret’s work is discovered and attains phenomenal success after Walter rents wall space in a local night club in an attempt to sell both Margaret’s work and his own Parisian street scenes.

When patrons begin to take an interest in the paintings, however, it is only Margaret’s children with big eyes they are interested in.

Seeing the potential to make money, and having had his own worked scorned by the club’s patrons, Walter claims to be the artist and pursues Margaret to churn out copious works while allowing him to take credit for the work.

In 1964, after an argument during which Walter throws lit matches at Margaret and Jane, she and Jane relocate to Honolulu, Hawaii.

When Walter will not agree to a divorce unless Margaret signs over the rights to every painting, and produces 100 more, she continues to paint and ship the pictures to him for sale as his own.

However, in 1970, she reveals live on a Hawaiian radio show that she was the real artist and sues both Walter and the paper carrying an article by San Francisco journalist Dick Nolan, for libel and slander when an article is published claiming she had “gone nuts”.

The suit, in the Honolulu court, against the newspaper is dismissed and Walter is left to defend himself in a suit which Margaret wins after a “paint-off” in which Walter is unable to produce anything.

The movie is touching without being overly soppy or dramatic, and where it is in use, dramatic effect is used expertly to tell the story without dictating the viewer’s reaction to the story through cheap theatrical trickery.

Directed by Tim Burton, this is a must for the DVD collection as it is certainly one movie you will watch again and again.