A frustrated son tries to determine the fact from fiction in his dying father's life.
United Press International journalist Will Bloom and his French freelance photojournalist wife Josephine Bloom, who is pregnant with their first child, leave their Paris base to return to Will's hometown of Ashton, Alabama on the news that his father, Edward Bloom, stricken with cancer, will soon die, he being taken off chemotherapy treatment. Although connected indirectly through Will's mother/Edward's wife, Sandra Bloom, Will has been estranged from his father for three years since his and Josephine's wedding. Will's issue with his father is the fanciful tales Edward has told of his life all his life, not only to Will but the whole world. As a child when Edward was largely absent as a traveling salesman, Will believed those stories, but now realizes that he does not know his father, who, as he continues to tell these stories, he will never get to know unless Edward comes clean with the truth before he dies. On the brink of his own family life beginning, Will does not want to be the kind of father Edward has been to him. One of those stories from Edward's childhood - that he saw his own death in the glass eye of a witch - led to him embracing life since he would not have to fear death knowing when and how it would eventually come. The question is whether Will will be able to reconcile Edward's stories against his real life, either directly from Edward before he dies and/or from other sources, and thus allow Will to come to a new understanding of himself and his life, past, present and future.—Huggo
When Edward Bloom becomes ill, his son, William, travels to be with him. William has a strained relationship with Edward because his father has always told exaggerated stories about his life, and William thinks he's never really told the truth. Even on his deathbed, Edward recounts fantastical anecdotes. When William, who is a journalist, starts to investigate his father's tales, he begins to understand the man and his penchant for storytelling.
This picture follows the incredible life of Edward Bloom, through a series of flashbacks that begin when his son Will visits him for the last time. Edward is dying of cancer, and Will hasn't spoken to him for years because he believes him to be a liar that never really cared for his family. As Edward's story unfolds once again, Will tries to finally understand the truth about who his father really was...—Chris Makrozahopoulos <[email protected]>
At Will Bloom's (Billy Crudup) wedding party, his father Edward (Albert Finney as Old Edward, Ewan McGregor as young Edward) recalls the day Will was born, claiming he caught an enormous catfish using his wedding ring as bait. Will, having heard these stories all his life, believes them to be lies and falls out with his father. Three years later, Edward is stricken with cancer, so Will and his pregnant French wife Joséphine (Marion Cotillard) return to his childhood home in Alabama to spend time with his father.
Edward's life is told through flashbacks, beginning with his encounter with a witch in his hometown, Ashton. She shows him his death, but he reacts to it without fear. As he grows into adulthood, he finds his home too confining (his bones grow too quickly as compared to his body and requires extensive bodywork and is made fun of at school (as a freak) to top it all off) (he is a genius in middle school though, with top marks in sports and studies), and sets out into the world with a misunderstood giant, Karl (Matthew McGrory), who has come to town with a traveling circus. The giant is considered a monster as it keeps eating everything in the town & the townsfolk want to kill him when Edward volunteers to talk to him and try to get him to leave the town. Edward talks to Karl in his cave and convinces that the town of Ashton is too small of Karl as well as his own ambitions. They decide to leave together for a big city.
Edward and Karl find a fork in the road and travel down separate paths. Edward follows a path through a swamp and discovers the secret town of Spectre, the cheery locals claiming he was expected. There, he befriends Ashton poet Norther Winslow (Steve Buscemi) and the mayor's daughter Jenny (Helena Bonham Carter). However, Edward leaves Spectre, unwilling to settle down but promises Jenny he will return. In the present day, Joséphine speaks to the bed-ridden Edward and asks him to tell her the story of how he met his wife Sandra, with Will listening outside the door.
Returning to his story, Edward reunites with Karl after escaping Spectre and they visit the Calloway Circus, where Edward falls in love with a beautiful woman. Karl and Edward get jobs in the circus where the ringmaster Amos Calloway (Danny DeVito) reveals to Edward one detail about the woman at the end of every month. Amos knows the girl that Edward is seeking, but in a bid to keep Karl performing for the circus, he agrees only to reveal 1 detail about the girl at the end of every month.
Three years later, Edward discovers that Amos is secretly a werewolf but shows no ill-will towards his employer. Amos, upon returning to normal, reveals the woman is Sandra, and she attends Auburn University. Edward confesses his love to Sandra, but she declines his wedding proposal despite numerous romantic gestures. He then learns she is already engaged to Don Price (David Denman), a fellow Ashton citizen. Don beats Edward in a fight (but only after Sandra makes Edward promise that he won't hurt Don), prompting Sandra to break off their engagement and marry Edward. Shortly after, Edward is conscripted into the army and sent to fight in the Korean War. The service period is 3 years and, in an attempt, to get back to Sandra early, Edward accepts every dangerous mission he could find, to reduce the service period to 1 year. He parachutes into the middle of a North Korean military show, steals important documents, and convinces Siamese twins Ping and Jing (Ada Tai and Arlene Tai) to help him go home in exchange for making them celebrities.
Upon returning home, Edward becomes a travelling salesman and crosses paths with Winslow, unwittingly helping him rob a failing bank, inspiring the poet to work on Wall Street (Winslow makes millions in wall street and sends a check for $10,000 to Edward as his fee as his "career advisor") (Edward uses the money to buy Sandra a house with a white picket fence). In the present, Will investigates the truth behind his father's tales (Will simply does not believe the stories that Edward told him about his life. He thinks they are all lies, so Edward asks him to check it out himself) and travels to Spectre. He meets an older Jenny, who explains that Edward rescued the town from bankruptcy and rebuilt it with help from his friends from Calloway Circus.
A few years back Edward was travelling in his job when he came across the same road that led to Spectre, on that road he found Spectre again which was not a derelict town, up for auction. Edward bought the whole town with help from Winslow, Amos and the Siamese Twins. Will suggests that Jenny had an affair with his father, but she reveals while she loved Edward, he remained loyal to Sandra. Will returns home but learns Edward has had a stroke and stays with him at the hospital (the attending doctor tells Will about the real story of his birth, and Will finds that the real version is not very exciting, but the version told by Edward had excitement, fantasy and entertainment. Will, at that moment, realized his father's love for story telling).
Edward wakes up but, unable to speak much, asks Will to narrate how his life ends. Though struggling, Will tells his father of their imagined daring escape from the hospital to the nearby lake, where everyone from Edward's past is there to see him off. Will takes Edward into the river, where he transforms into the giant catfish and swims away. A satisfied Edward dies, knowing Will finally understands his love for storytelling.
At the funeral, Will and Joséphine are surprised when all the people from Edward's stories come to the service, though each one is a slightly less fantastical version than described. Will, finally understanding his father's love for life, passes on Edward's stories to his own son
