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Poster for Big Eyes

Big Eyes

She created it. He sold it. And everyone bought it.

2014 · 1h 46m · PG-13 Drama
Directed by Tim Burton

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Overview

In the late 1950s and early '60s, artist Walter Keane achieves unbelievable fame and success with portraits of saucer-eyed waifs. However, no one realizes that his wife, Margaret, is the real painter behind the brush. Although Margaret is horrified to learn that Walter is passing off her work as his own, she is too meek to protest too loudly. It isn't until the Keanes' marriage comes to an end and a lawsuit follows that the truth finally comes to light.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
72%
Tomatometer
Rotten

A feminist psycho-melodrama made without insight or dramatic excitement.

David Denby, New Yorker
Rotten

Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz are charismatic in the lead roles; occasionally they distract from the movie's overall smugness.

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader
Fresh

For all its tonal shifts and erratic pacing, the film is Burton's heartfelt tribute to the yearning that drives even the most marginalized artist to self expression no matter what the hell anyone thinks.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Rotten

Burton might need to get further from blockbuster bloat in order to regain his formal mastery of kitsch. Right now his sense of comic portraiture is too easily mistakable for splatter painting.

Wesley Morris, Grantland
Fresh

Adams is lovely and tremulous, but Big Eyes would be even better if Waltz was in the same key.

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture

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