Review: "Big Eyes" (2014) - Tim Burton, Amy Adams Movie HD

"Bright Eyes" is an offbeat Tim Burton directed movie, which ,might seem redundant for those familiar with his earlier films. Amy Adams ("Enchanted", "Trouble With the Curve") plays Margaret, a young single mother who flees bad marriage in 1958 and takes her daughter to a bohemian part of San Francisco to make a new life with her young daughter. While looking for a regular job as a commercial artist, she also tries her hand at selling her work free-lance, her specialty being heartfelt but rather obvious portraits of children with large eyes. Her work is given a boost by her new Type-A boyfriend, Walter Keane, played by Christopher Walz ("Django Unchained") who is a dabbler in the arts with a great talent for self-promotion. After they marry, Walter tries to pass off her paintings as his own, under the theory that art produced by a woman cannot be successful as a man's in mid-20th Century America. As the success of the "bright eyes" portraits reaches national and international proportions, Margaret struggles to reclaim her identity.

Burton does a good job stifling his usual penchant for the outlandish and the grotesque you might have seen in his "Alice in Wonderland" or "Batman" films. There is also a refreshing lack of snark about the art in question. Margaret's artwork is shown meeting with criticism and snobbery, but the film gives it her and her followers a proper respect. The style of the movie evokes a bohemian (but pre-hippie) San Francisco of the 60's that feels right, and the story is briskly paced.
Here's the trailer from You Tube. Like too many "coming attractions" it gives away too much of what is good about the film so if you like surprises, please  just view a minute or so of this.