It's the story of Margaret Keane (Adams). I know...who?  Keane was this amazing young mother and painter in the late 1950's and 1960's who developed this really unique style of painting children on canvas with huge eyes.  The paintings were remarkable and insanely original.

 

After leaving her first husband with her daughter, Margaret strikes out on her own in 1958 and moves to San Francisco where she meets a young man named Walter Keane  (Christoph Waltz).  He is a young painter with a huge personality and the two soon wed.  They then come to this agreement that he will take all the credit for all her paintings of the big eyes kids.  He is out trying to sell these paintings after no one showed any interest in his own work.

No one earth knows she is doing all the painting except those two.  And they build this tremendous empire of big eyes, and make a fortune with her painting and him taking all the credit for them. Well as time goes on, Margaret cannot take it anymore and she again strikes out with another style of painting that Walter too wants all the credit for.  Needless to say, the wall eventually comes down, and Margaret wants her work recognized. So they split and the legal battle is on. Walter is going off the deep end, and he is about to be humiliated around the world, and Margaret is going to have her day.

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It really is an interesting story all the way around.  And it's one we don't know. It is almost unbelievable at times as they pull this con off on the entire world.  How do things like this happen? 

Adams is really turning out to be a wonderful leading woman. She is simply great in bringing this young, frail and naive genius to us.  She is seemingly getting better in each movie.  Waltz is great as the lunatic Walter, although a bit fatiguing at times, but I'm sure the real Walter was as well.  The supporting cast is fine, but this movie belongs squarely to Adams and Waltz.   This is a movie that requires an open mind, as you travel into the art world, complete with galleries, art shows, and critics. This is acting and directing all the way, no action, no chase scenes.

Big Eyes. This is very good.

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