'Big Fish' tops movie openings

A brooding Batman, a murderous horseman and a kooky movie maker all owe screen time to director Tim Burton.

Now a dying man and his tall tales come to life in Burton's "Big Fish," opening Friday at Butler Plaza and Cinema 90 in Lake City.

The film, rated PG-13, features Albert Finney as Edward Bloom, a traveling salesman with a personal history he claims is larger than life. Billy Crudup is the son who can't stand his father's wild and repetitive stories, and Jessica Lange plays the younger man's mother struggling to reunite the pair. Starring as the young Bloom is Ewan McGregor.

The story within Bloom's stories is the painful reconciliation between the two men. But much of the film features the yarns that have become the older man's life.

Burton is the guy who can deliver that fairy-tale touch to a film, as he did in "Sleepy Hollow" or "Edward Scissorhands." Filmgoers can expect that Burton touch in the dreamy sequences that are Bloom's tales.

Also opening Friday, both at Royal Park and rated PG-13, are "Chasing Liberty" and "My Baby's Daddy."

Mandy Moore stars in the romantic comedy about the president's daughter who ditches the Secret Service for a chance at fun in a road trip around Europe.

In the second film, three men learn about fatherhood and responsibility when their girlfriends all get pregnant at the same time.

The Hippodrome Cinema is showing "Veronica Guerin" starting Friday.

Lise Fisher can be reached at 374-5092 or fisherl@gvillesun.com.