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it will live forever. Alone it puts the film in the top ten for the 21st century so far.

CGI, narrative, design, performance and soundtrack combine for an unexpected moment of beauty that's only really a prelude to the fast-forward gag.

And of course it's hugely symbolic. Burton is sweeping aside the traditional trappings of cinema (popcorn, genre, plot, linear narrative) so that we can experience a more magical view of the world. Eroding the barriers between audience and film just as Bloom erodes the barriers between fantasy and objective reality.

The film has been criticised for losing focus later on. For the most part, this means people don't understand and can't accept what's been done.

Bloom Jr is sorting out his father's paperwork and starts to dig around. Expecting to learn the truth behind a few of his father's stories, instead everyone gets a bit confused.

Why can't Bloom be a war hero, town saviour and friend to witches, werewolves and giants? This IS a film, and one directed by Tim Burton! His masterstroke is to set up the possibility that Bloom is just making things up, siding the audience with Crudup in spite of our instincts. The problem is that when we come to the point when we should be realising that a great deal of what we've seen was true after all, we've become too entrenched in the boring Crudup mindset. And I find it depressing that people find themselves confused by a film which says that beauty and, well, magic actually are all around, and that they spring from our creative faculties.

I remember the first time I watched this film, there were loads of kids in the cinema, and I unfortunately found myself sitting next to one of them. As we reached the conclusion, with Crudup finally succumbing to the story-telling instinct, Edward Bloom rises from his deathbed with new vigour.

This is silly,' snorted the girl, as my own eyes began prickling.

No, it's not, it's beautiful,' I growled back.

She seemed far from convinced. But about a minute later, as the son's creative floodgates finally burst open in a frenetic, anarchic montage, she was freely crying her eyes out.

And the amusing thing is that this emotional climax renders the film's actual ending quite unremarkable, providing as it does a perfect mirror image of the previous sequence. In some ways, it's a bit disappointing.

But Edward survives, sticking to the life lesson taught to him at the age of 18: The biggest fish is the one that never gets caught.' He never allows himself to be predictable,

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