Artist Margaret Ulbrich (Amy Adams) and her daughter head for San Francisco after her marriage fails. Margaret is just beginning her painting career, which features waiflike children with big eyes. As Margaret struggles to support her daughter, she attracts the attention of another artist, a smooth operator named Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz). They soon marry.
Keane convinces her to sign his name to her paintings because they will sell more. They become wealthy because Walter’s idea to
make prints of Margaret’s paintings is extremely successful. But Margaret comes to regret the fraud that she and Walter perpetrate, so she flees with Jane to Hawaii. When Jehovah’s Witnesses visit her, she finds consolation and the courage to take her life back—by taking Keane to court.
Big Eyes was an unknown story to me and it is very interesting. It shows a talented woman who gives up her identity and fights to get it back. Waltz’s performance seems forced, while Adams is good. But the film could easily have been a network television movie.
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