Subtitles:

English (SDH), Spanish, none

Extras:

The true story of painter Margaret Keane's life in obscurity while her husband gleaned the notoriety for being the face of her work is brought to the screen by Tim Burton and his Ed Wood screenwriters, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. The story opens in the late 1950s, when Margaret Keane Amy Adams packs up the car with her daughter and their personal belongings, and leaves her husband to start a new life in San Francisco. There, Margaret quickly reconnects with her old friend DeeAnn Krysten Ritter, and falls head over heels for Walter Christoph Waltz, an artist and part-time real-estate broker who soon shows great interest in her unique paintings of small children with strikingly expressive, saucer-like eyes. Before long, the two are married, and Walter is claiming credit for Margaret's increasingly popular paintings. With the money rolling in, Margaret initially agrees to go along with the ruse, but the closer she gets to her new husband the more she begins to realize that he's little more than a smooth-talking scam artist. Later, riddled with guild over the fact that she's been deceiving her own daughter as her paintings become a pop-culture phenomenon, Margaret leaves the increasingly abusive Walter, and moves to Hawaii. Only then does Margaret gain the confidence to reclaim the works that have been credited to her husband, even when doing so entails going before the judge and proving that she and she alone created the enchanting children with the big eyes. Danny Huston, Terence Stamp, and Jason Schwartzman co-star.

Tim Burton directs this biographical drama starring Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams. The film follows the story of American artist Margaret Keane (Adams), who, in the 1960s, allowed her husband Walter (Waltz) to claim credit for her artwork, believing that a female artist could not find success through painting. The Keanes acquired huge amounts of wealth through Margaret's work and the paintings were in high demand throughout their time living together as husband and wife. However, when they later became separated, Margaret announced to the world that she was in fact the true author of the paintings, sparking a long-drawn-out legal battle between her and her estranged husband... Adams won a Golden Globe Award for her performance.

Gary Tooze

April 8th, 2015