Margaret (Amy Adams) is a young woman on the run from an unpleasant past. The movie opens as she takes her daughter fleeing from a past life. They end up in San Francisco, where she hopes to put her art to some use. At a sidewalk show, she meets Walter Keane (Christopher Waltz) who appears to be a more established artist. After a whirlwind courtship, they get married and settle into working their art.
Walter has a knack for promotion and when he makes his first sale, the fact that it is signed KEANE he gives the impression that he Walter did it and not his wife Margaret Keane. A whirlwind phenom grows and the two are caught in a lie of her doing the art and he selling it and getting the credit. They split the money as husband and wife, so no harm, no foul, right?
That would be a short movie. But tension builds and the story must resolve. It winds up with a suitable courtroom ending to this mystery.
Taking an old story set in the 60s and making it fresh - very much like a movie from last Christmas Saving Mr. Banks. But this is not a Disney movie. Directed by Tim Burton, its like a PG -13 form of Disney, with drinking and family violence. Are you sure Walt would've done it this way?
* * * of 4
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