Sin #47: Fathers and Sons

I’ve always had a problem with Tim Burton’s “Big Fish”. In it we encounter a man who neglected his family for many years and now, lying on his death bed, tries to make amends with his son, who barely knew him at all; all he knew about his father were his loony and contrived fantastical stories of his youth. I know we’re supposed to smile at the flashbacks and the wacky characters but I cringed knowing that the father was in reality a pathological liar and that not even at the end could he be honest with his family (his wife looks resigned looming over the man, as if she accepted a long time ago that some people really never do change). To this day I find “Big Fish” to be one of Burton’s lesser efforts (along with his ill-advised “Planet of the Apes” remake).

There are, however, more honest encounters of fathers and sons on film. One of the most powerful happens in Paul Thomas Anderson’s magnificent “Magnolia”, when a character played by Tom Cruise confronts his father, a man who abandoned him when he was very young. The scene is heartbreaking and the actors bring ferocious intensity; not only is it Cruise’s best performance ever but the movie is a tragic mosaic of regret and sorrow. It may be one of the most powerful dramas ever made and the scene between father and son (the father was played by a very sick Jason Robards, who passed away after filming) is among many unforgettable moments of explosive and corrosive emotion (another memorable scene is the singing montage featuring a song by Aimee Mann).

Recently I had the chance to watch a Hungarian movie called “Taxidermia” that, in a way, also deals with a relationship with a father and his son (this takes place in the movie’s third act). The film has a curious three-way structure; in the first act we meet the grandfather in his youth, a soldier with a very strong libido who gets shot after raping a large woman on a farm (the raping part could be debated, I guess), the second part is all about the father, an obese man who enters in extreme food competitions and is in love and finally the third act deals with the son who is a taxidermist, taking care of his father, who’s become so large that he can’t even stand up anymore.

“Taxidermia” is such an audacious work that many will find it unbearable. It contains images that are repulsive and grotesque, morbidly fascinating and utterly repugnant, and yet there is something meaningful and artistic about the whole endeavor. At the end it left me baffled and confused (especially at the actions of the taxidermist at the end and its moral implications) and yet I was fascinated at how daring and provoking it really is, changing characters and tones between segments and juggling between black comedy, psychosexual drama and horror. It really is a unique piece of cinema even though most audiences wouldn’t dare give it a chance.