Big Eyes is a 2014 American biographical drama film directed by Tim Burton, written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz.

In 1958, Margaret Ulbrich leaves her then-husband and takes her young daughter Jane to North Beach, San Francisco, where she gets a job painting illustrations at a furniture factory.

While doing portraits at an outdoor art show, she meets Walter Keane, who sells paintings of Parisian street scenes but makes his money in real estate.

Unable to get his or Margaret's paintings into a fine art gallery, Walter convinces Enrico Banducci, the owner of a popular jazz club, to rent him some wall space to exhibit their work.

Dick Nolan, a celebrity gossip columnist, wants to know more about the artwork but proceeds to ask about Margaret's paintings of young girls with big eyes.

Afterward, he shows Margaret how much money he made selling her work and suggests they team up, with her staying at home painting and him taking credit and handling publicity and sales.

At a party, Walter becomes angry after reading John Canaday's scathing review of "Tomorrow Forever", which leads the Fair not to exhibit the painting, and confronts the critic.

As he continues to throw lit matches and nearly sets the house on fire, both Margaret and Jane manage to escape, take the car, and drive away from home.

A textual epilogue reveals that Walter, despite continuing to insist that he was the true artist, never produced another painting and died penniless while Margaret remarried, moved back to San Francisco, and opened a new gallery.

Writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski negotiated with Margaret Keane over her life rights and wrote Big Eyes as a spec script.

[6] Kate Hudson and Thomas Haden Church were set to star, and filming was to begin in June 2008, before being pushed back for reasons related to a new Screen Actors Guild contract.

[16] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone criticized the film's uneven tone and pacing, but admitted it was a "heartfelt tribute to the yearning that drives even the most marginalized artist to self expression no matter what the hell anyone thinks.