Big Eyes, Feminism With A Spooky Twist

by Meg Zulch

Tim Burton, the king of spooky cool and curator of ’90s kids’ favorite movies from childhood, is coming out with a new lady-centered movie, Big Eyes

The film is a true story about Margaret Keane, an artist from the 1950s played by Amy Adams, who specialized in painting images of children with freakishly huge eyes. But her husband Walter, played by the charming Christoph Waltz, is not such a charming character. In fact, he’s kind of a jerk. 

When Margaret’s paintings gain recognition, Walter takes credit for them and achieves fame and fortune. With the film dealing with the issue of Margaret reclaiming her identity and independence from Walter by revealing that she is the true artist of the waifish masterpieces, the film has a pretty feminist slant.

This comes as no surprise with Burton, who is not only the master of topsy turvy, but has consistently created super rad female characters in many of his movies. Take the cynical and smart Lydia from Beetlejuice, played by the dreamy Winona Ryder. Or Sally, the quirky dreamer from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

 

Burton’s female characters have always stood out as very cool, individualistic and quite feminist, and now we can add Margaret Keane to that list.

You can catch the film on Christmas Day. Until then, you can read more about the film here, and watch the trailer right here:

 

Photo via Indiewire and Fanpop.

 

 

 

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