Big tale

As an eight-year old confined to bed because of a preternatural growing spurt, Edward occupies himself by reading the entire World Book Encyclopedia. He is taken in particular with an article about goldfish, in which he learns that "if goldfish are kept in a small bowl, they will remain small. With more space, the fish can double, triple or quadruple its size." Ten years later, after becoming one of the most popular young men in Ashton, Alabama, he realises that, like the goldfish, in order for him to grow he must leave home and explore the world.

And thus, an improbable and mythic journey begins.

Many years and countless adventures later, Bloom (Albert Finney) is well-known as a teller of tall tales about his colourful life as a less than ordinary young man (Ewan McGregor), when his wanderlust took him around the world and back again.

Bloom's fabled stories charm everyone he encounters except his son Will (Billy Crudup), who has also left home but in this case to get out from under his father's considerable shadow. When Edward becomes ill and his wife, Sandra (Jessica Lange), tries to reconcile them, Will embarks on his own personal journey trying to separate the myth from the reality of his father's life and come to terms with the man's giant feats and great failings.

The other travellers on this moving voyage include Helena Bonham Carter as a woman who appears in different forms - including an enchanted witch. Alison Lohman portrays the young Sandra, the one true love of Edward's life; Steve Buscemi is the rueful poet turned bank robber turned Wall Street baron Norther Winslow; and Danny DeVito plays Amos Calloway, the bamboozling ringmaster of a traveling circus.

"Stories are our dreams, really," says actor Ewan McGregor, who plays the adventurous young Edward Bloom in Tim Burton's fable-like family drama Big Fish. "That's why we tell stories. They're kind of what makes us inter-esting and connects us with one another from generation to gener-ation. Without them, all we'd be left with is politics and supermarkets. And what kind of a world would that be?"

What struck Burton about the material was its delicate balance between the epic scope of the tall-tales and the simpler, more intimate story about family dynamics. "I enjoyed the fact that it would go into moments of fantasy and then return to the poignant reality of losing a parent," says Burton. "The challenge for me was to maintain that balance in the visualisation of the story."

McGregor says he related to the story in a personal way. "The first time I read the screenplay, it left me speechless. It was so moving, with a power that derives from essentially being about the relationship between a father and a son. It reminded me of when I left Scotland, which is a big deal for a Scot.

"I moved to London to go to drama school but really because I wanted to see the world. It's similar to what Edward does. Sometimes you have to leave the familiar to find out who you really are. I think the film will resonate with everyone who's ever done that."

In taking on the role of Bloom in his later years, Albert Finney found a through line between the character's journey and his life as a performer on stage and screen. "I'm very sort of earth bound as a person. I tend to look at what's real, what's logical. But through drama, I'm somehow allowed to go into fantasy, into a strange other world, to fly a little bit."

Though they don't share any scenes for obvious reasons off screen McGregor and Finney became fast friends.

"I recall being blown away that I was actually going to meet Albert Finney," confides McGregor. "The idea of playing him was almost overwhelming because he's such a legend. Despite the fact that we have no scenes together, I spent as much time as I could around him. He loves acting still, and I like that because I do as well. So it was reassuring to see after all these years, he still has that passion."

Jessica Lange plays the elder Bloom's devoted wife, Sandra. At its heart, Lange sees Big Fish as essentially a love story. "I wanted the audience to be able to understand immediately that Edward and Sandra are still madly in love after 40 years, that this practical down-to-earth woman fulfills all his fantasies. Sandra is a wonderful character. She has a wonderful acceptance of the world, of letting things be."