When The Cat’s Away…

…the mice will play. Well, the mouse in this case. Martin’s away visiting friends, so it’s a chance to watch DVDs by myself, with a kleenex box to hand as required.

 

First up was Tim Burton’s Big Fish. I have a very soft spot for all of Tim Burton’s films. More than one of them have sent me stumbling from the cinema in floods of tears, and I mean that as a compliment of the highest order. I like Big Fish for both the tall tales, beautifully told and visualised, and for the story of a father and son who are reconciled at the moment of the father’s death. I hasten to add that this is nothing like my own story, but I recognise and respond to such basic human motifs. I laugh and cry at the same time during this wonderful film.

 

Second up was The Iron Giant. OK, it’s a children’s film, but it captured the feeling of growing up in the late 1950s very well. While I would not say that I had the bravado of the film’s boy hero Hogarth Hughes, I knew the world of wonder and paranoia that he inhabits. It’s a terrific film, forget the children’s film label, just see it.