Now here’s an amazing true story: those ubiquitous but creepy images of waifs with exaggerated eyes were created by painter Margaret Keane, but the credit for them – and income from them – were taken by her con man husband Walter Keane. In the entertaining Big Eyes, the couple is played by Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz.
Adams’ performance is perfectly tuned, so we can understand how Margaret could be charmed and bullied into such a disadvantageous situation. Waltz does a good job in the first two-thirds of the movie, when he depicts Walter’s charm and chutzpah; but his performance in the final third of the movie seems very broad. Big Eyes also features especially fun supporting turns by Danny Huston and Terence Stamp.
Big Eyes does a good job of illustrating the overt sexism of the pre-Women’s Lib 1950s. And the serious issue of domination and control in a relationship lurks in the background. But Big Eyes has been distilled down to a simplistic Good Gal/Bad Guy story.
Denizens of the San Francisco Bay Area will enjoy the familiar Bay Area locations, especially the recreation of North Beach in the Beat Era and Woodside in the Sunset Magazine 1960s.
Bottom line: Big Eyes is a satisfying audience-pleaser, but not a movie I’ll be thinking about tomorrow.