Big Fish is populated by the kind of strange and eccentric elements that are normal in Tim Burton world. A giant, a one-eyed witch, a changeling, Siamese twins, a circus, a bank robber and a mystical town filled with barefoot townspeople are just a sampling of the characters that populate the fantastical imagination of Ed Bloom, the man who has lived a life telling tall tales. He is one of the big fish in Big Fish.

When we’re not hearing one of Ed’s fanciful stories, things aren’t quite so cheery. Ed has led a wonderful life, but now he’s sick. And his tall tales have caused a strain between himself and his son. In the more realistic world part of Big Fish , a reconciliation needs to take place between father and son.

The troubles between father and son came to a boiling point on the day the son, Will, got married. Ed couldn’t resist the opportunity to take center stage and tell one of his tall tales. Ed’s favorite stories involve winning the hand of his adored wife, Sandra. As present-day characters, Ed and Sandra are played by Albert Finney and Jessica Lange. Except for one moment in a bathtub, these two don’t get any juicy scenes together, but Lange still manages to convey an enduring affection for her husband. Finney has a more substantial role, and he is delightful in it.

But after hogging the spotlight at Will’s wedding, Will just can’t take it anymore, and he and his wife move to Paris. He becomes a journalist and stops speaking to his father for a few years, though he’s still in touch frequently with his mom and knows everything that is going on at home.

But it is no surprise that when the phone rings and Ed is seriously ill, Will packs his bag for home. Will is played by Billy Crudup, and his pregnant French wife, Josephine, who insists on going with him, is played by Marion Cotillard. Crudup balances Will’s frustration and love for his father with a believable bemused and resigned quality. Cotillard has little to do but listen and look understanding, which she manages with ease.

What Will wants is to hear what really happened in his father’s life. He wants the true account of all the events in his father’s life that Ed has turned into legends. Not surprisingly, Ed isn’t about to comply. He’s an old dog, and he likes his tricks. He wants to tell the stories he loves a few more times, and with Josephine he has a fresh audience.

And what fabulous stories Ed has to tell! Through Ed’s stories we enter Burton’s favored territory. In these stories, the world is colorful, beautiful, fateful and magical. Burton’s visual imagination is allowed to stretch and flex in Ed’s stories.

These scenes are lots of fun. A giant walks with a man. The giant pushes a house to straighten it up. Danny DeVito shape-changes, though not before our eyes. Ravishing Siamese twins entertain the troops. An enormous lawn next to a college dorm is covered in daffodils. In many of these scenes, Ed and Sandra are played by Ewan McGregor and Alison Lohman who project the wide-eyed exuberance of the tall tale situations they find themselves in.

This casting is very soothing. McGregor and Finney are believable as the same man young and old. Lohman and Lange are even more believable as the same woman young and old.

Ed’s stories extend back to boyhood when he and his buddies spy on the house of the local witch. Big Fish is set in the South, and the childhood scenes have the flavor of Jem, Dill, and Scout trying to make Boo Radley come out. The witch, played by Helena Bonham Carter, who also plays another character in Big Fish, does come out.

The story is that if you look into her blind eye, you will see how you’re going to die. Ed convinces the witch to let the boys look. The story of what Ed sees in her eye is the one story he won’t tell.

Ed’s stories make great visual fodder, but I did start to shift in my seat. I wasn’t bored exactly, but I did start to wonder if I was going to leave the theater - as I do too often after a Burton film - with nothing worth remembering but a few cool images. For most of the film I was entertained but not hooked. (No fishing pun intended.)

But then Big Fish changes. Ed gets worse and goes to the hospital. The family doctor, Dr. Bennett, tells Will the real story of the day he was born, and it doesn’t stand up very well to Ed’s version of the story.

Robert Guillaume plays Dr. Bennett. He’s still not fully recovered from the stroke he suffered some years ago while a regular on the much missed “Sport’s Night.” There is something very touching about Burton’s casting choice.

At about this point in Big Fish you start to realize just what kind poetic and emotional reconciliation this father and son can experience. Big Fish is adapted by John August from the novel Big Fish, A Story of Mythic Proportions by Daniel Wallace. I don’t know what changes have been made from the page to the screen. All I know is that for me Big Fish turned into a three-hanky weepie. And I mean that in the most complimentary way. The final scene between Finney and Crudup is beautifully played.