Tim Burton’s all washed up.

Tim Burton’s trademark flight of fancy - a plucky misfit making his way through a fantastical world - finally crashes to Earth. Ewan McGregor’s aw-shucks charm gradually morphs into Albert Finney, an old blowhard whose tall tales alienate his son (Billy Crudup). But with pops fading fast, surely it’s time to humour the old fella’s history-onics? Good-looking but ultimately phoney, this codswallop does little but indulge the self-serving, revisionist propaganda of a tiresome Southerner. Hasn’t recent history taught us anything? (5/10) Leigh Singer 23 January 04

Big Fish, on national release 23 January 04.