Big Fish movie - From Wikipedia

Big Fish is a 2003 fantasy drama film, directed by Tim Burton and written by John August. It is loosely based on the novel Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions by Daniel Wallace, and stars Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman, Steve Buscemi, Helena Bonham Carter, Marion Cotillard and Danny DeVito, among others.
Will Bloom (Crudup) returns to his family home in Alabama, having spent the past three years not talking to his father Edward (Finney). Dying, Edward recounts his life story in his own unique, exaggerated way, full of fantastic events (portrayed in these flashbacks by McGregor). Will tries to get to know his father and find the truth, discovering that his father did lead an extraordinary life and that his storytelling was his finest achievement.
The film was initially planned to be directed by Steven Spielberg before Burton took on the project, following the death of his own father. The film was mostly shot in Alabama, and had a much less gothic tone than Burton's other films such as Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow. Many critics hailed the film as Burton's masterpiece, and it received four Golden Globe nominations and one Oscar nomination for Danny Elfman's original score.

Plot

At his son's wedding party, Edward Bloom tells the same tale he's told many times over the years: on the day Will was born, he was out catching an enormous uncatchable fish, using his wedding ring as bait. Will is annoyed rather than pleased by this tale-telling; he explains to his wife, Josephine, that because his father never told the straight truth on anything but insisted on embellishing it with tales, he felt that he could not trust him. He is troubled to think that he might have a similarly difficult relationship with his future children.
Will becomes a journalist in Paris, and his relationship with his father becomes so strained that they do not talk for three years. But when his father's health starts to fail, Will and his pregnant wife return to Alabama. On the plane, Will recalls his father's tale of how he braved a swamp as a child, and met a witch who showed him his death in her glass eye. With this knowledge, Edward knows there are no odds he cannot face.
Edward still has a knack for tall tales. As he tells it, he spent three years confined to a bed as a child, with his body growing incredibly fast. He became a successful sports player but found the town of Ashton too small for his ambition. Finding a kindred spirit in the misunderstood giant Karl, they set off. Edward takes an abandoned path down a supposedly haunted forest. He discovers the tiny hidden town of Spectre, where the missing poet Norther Winslow has settled with people so friendly that no one ever leaves, and everyone comfortably walks around barefoot. Edward still feels he does not want to settle anywhere yet and leaves, but promises to the young girl Jenny that he will return.

At the circus Karl signs up with Amos Calloway, and time stops as Edward sees the love of his life. As time speeds up again and he loses her, he promises to work for the circus day and night without pay to learn who she is. Every month for three years Bloom is told something new about the girl, but it is mostly useless trivial information (such as "she likes music"). One night Edward discovers Amos is a fierce werewolf, but manages to calm him down by playing fetch: In thanks for Edward's kindness, Amos tells him the girl's name is Sandra Templeton and she studies at Auburn University.

Edward learns from Sandra that she is engaged to Don Price, also from Ashton. He makes many attempts to show his love for her, including collecting all of the daffodils (her favorite flowers) from five states. Don appears and beats up Edward, who refuses to fight back, having given Sandra his word that he wouldn't hit Don. Disgusted by Don's behavior, Sandra gives up her engagement ring and falls for Edward. During his recovery in the hospital, Edward is conscripted by the army and sent to Korea. Instead of taking his assigned mission, he instead parachutes into a theater entertaining troops, steals important documents, and convinces conjoined dancers Ping and Jing to help him get back to America, where he will make them stars. Bloom is unable to contact anyone on his long journey home, so the army mistakenly declares him dead. They deliver Sandra the death notice, plunging her into grief, so it shocks her when Edward later arrives home alive and well. Being legally dead means that his work choices are limited, so he becomes a traveling salesman. Meeting Norther Winslow again, he unwittingly helps him rob a bank, which is already bankrupt. Edward suggests Winslow work on Wall Street, and Winslow later sends Edward $10,000 from his first million as his "career adviser." Edward uses it to buy his family's dream house.
Still unimpressed by his father's stories, Will demands to know the truth. Edward tries to explain who he is: a storyteller. While looking through Edward's old office, Will finds a suspicious letter from Spectre. Going there, Will meets an older Jenny. She explains that Spectre eventually went bankrupt, but Edward bought the entire town at an auction and rebuilt the town with financial help from many of his previous acquaintances, although it evidently decayed again. She also explains that she loved Edward, but Sandra was the only woman for him.
Coming home, Will discovers his father has had a stroke and is at the hospital. He goes to visit him there and finds him only partly conscious, and unable to speak at length. Since Edward can no longer tell stories, he asks Will to tell him the story of how it all ends: escaping from the hospital, they go to the river where everybody in Edward's life shows up to greet him on his last journey. Will carries his father into the river where he becomes a big fish. Although his story is clumsy compared to his father's practiced tale-telling style, it shows that for the first time Will understands why storytelling was so important to his father. Edward peacefully remarks "exactly" before passing away.

At his funeral, Will sees many of his father's more unusual friends, confirming at least a grain of truth from many of his tales. He sees Amos, Karl, Ping and Jing and Norther Winslow amongst others, although they are not entirely the same as in the stories, (for example, Ping and Jing were twins, but not conjoined). When his own son is born, Will passes on his father's stories, remarking that his father became his stories, allowing him to live forever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Fish