Following a string of fantastical films with hefty budgets (and less-than-desirable critical responses), Tim Burton takes a deep breath and a long step back with Big Eyes, his smallest, most reigned-in production since Ed Wood. It’s a smooth, dreamy-looking film on the surface, but its two leads, Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz, are so out of sync and polarized they spoil the movie like acid curdles milk.

What do you get when you curdle milk? Why, cheese, of course! And boy, does Waltz bring the cheese as Walter Keane, an artist who in the ’60s was the source of a global phenomenon, selling millions paintings (and prints and postcards and posters) of waifs with eyes so big and round they put Disney cartoons to shame. Walter drank up his stardom like cheap wine, touring the world and selling his masterpieces to the masses, taking all the credit and raking in all the money. In the ’70s, however, the world learned of Walter’s grand deception: The paintings, all signed “Keane”, weren’t painted by Walter at all, but by his wife, Margaret Keane (Adams).

For years the egomaniacal Walter held his wife and her artistry hostage, swindling the world as he basked in his unearned celebrity, the painted kids’ giant saucers staring back into the eyes of the deceivers. (Willingly or not, Margaret was part of the scandal, too.) Big Eyes‘ sole fuel source is the power struggle between the rival, betrothed artists. The film’s big question goes unanswered: Are Margaret’s paintings high art for dignitaries or throwaway kitsch for dummies? I would have loved to have heard Burton’s answer. Fixating narrowly on the Keane’s broken marriage (which, if it hadn’t been for the absurdly sexist constraints of marriage in the ’60s, wouldn’t have lasted nearly as long) isn’t necessarily a doomed game plan, but the way the relationship is depicted is woefully uneven, uncompelling, and unconvincing.

Adams’ Margaret is in a fevered rush, packing her things and her daughter Jane (Delaney Raye, later Madeline Arthur) into her car as the film opens. She’s leaving her first husband (who we never see), heading to San Francisco to start life anew. Selling her work at a park fair, Margaret is charmed by a fellow vendor and artist, Walter, who, after a few wolfish grins, clever lines, and fanciful stories over the course of a few dates, makes her his wife. (Aside from Walter’s keeping custody of Jane also goaded Margaret into the union.) With his keen business savvy and schmoozing skills, Walter manages to get he and Margaret’s paintings on the walls of a hip North Beach night club, though the ritzy clientele heavily gravitate toward Margaret’s “big eyes”, passing up Walter’s classical landscape paintings. Seizing a fiendish opportunity, he takes credit for his wife’s work because, as he explains later, “People don’t buy lady art.”

If you follow the screenplay’s every move, it’s pretty clear that this is a story about a woman’s self-liberation from cold servitude, but when you sit there and watch the domestic drama play out, with Margaret ultimately triumphing over Walter and exposing his scam, the story surprisingly doesn’t feel empowering or energetic at all. The film falls flat, not because Adams and Waltz’s performances themselves are subpar, but because their performances pull in opposite directions.

Adams plays Margaret grounded in realism, at first rife with insecurities, later pulsing with the confidence and resilience of a woman reborn. She’s sweet and sensitive, coveting her canvas as her only outlet for true, unbridled expression. Though the dialogue is awfully unremarkable, she infuses as much emotion as she can, emoting with subtle body language. Waltz…well, Waltz goes overboard. He’s a total ham in this one. He’s always had a hit-or-miss tendency with his delivery; either his lines sound emphatic, electric, and brave, or they sound cheesy, theatrical, and kinda creepy, like when your uncle gets all animated and overly excited when he tells an outdated joke no one finds funny but him. The most interesting wrinkle in Walter as a character is that, while he’s a fraud of an artist, he’s undeniably genius when it comes to the art of the con. This gets buried, however, under all of Waltz’s mad-man antics. With Adams aiming for gravitas and Waltz aiming for wackiness, the confusion causes the film to miss the mark with a big whiff.

The film has a pleasant, feathery look to it, like taking Burton’s signature style and upping the brightness so all of the dark, twisted elements get washed out in a haze of pastel. San Francisco serves as a heavenly backdrop for the story and works well with the film’s color palate. The loud art design on Burton’s recent projects needed to be reeled in a bit, and with Big Eyes he does just that, applying his artistic vision not to a distant fantasy land, but to a world we’re actually familiar with. It’s a shame his leads couldn’t find the same sweet spot together.

Let’s talk about FOMO.

You know what I’m talking about. That feeling you get when a friend posts online that they just saw the film you’ve read about for months and haven’t seen yet. It’s avoiding social media the entire weekend a new movie opens for fear of spoilers. It’s knowing that awards season is just around the bend and there’s more films to be seen than time to see them in. It’s Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) and in some way, shape, or form it’s been eating at you for months during the busy-ness of fall. But the light at the end of the tunnel has arrived: the Holidays.

Full, work-free days where you are practically mandated to eat a lot of food and catch up on movies. But unless you’re in college, you don’t have ALL the time in the world, so here’s your Holiday Movie Preview, just in time to help you figure out what’s coming out so you know where best to put your energy. You may return to work from the holidays 5 pounds heavier, but you’ll ace any water cooler movie pop-quizzes.

Must-Sees

Mockingjay: Part 1

It’s the beginning of the end for what is arguably the best YA film adaptation series of all time. Of course you’ll feel incomplete having to wait a year for Part 2, but this will be the one all your friends are talking about. (11/20)

The Imitation Game

The Oscar buzz around Benedict Cumberbatch will make this one worth being able to talk about. (11/27)

The Babadook

Perfect for those who like balancing savory and sweet, family time and fright time. Nothing makes you more grateful for family than a horror film about a mother and her son fighting to reconnect as they are haunted by a kid’s book character. (11/28, limited)

Wild

Skip the book, see the movie, bring tissues. Reese Witherspoon is phenomenal in the film, and Laura Dern adds emotional veracity. (12/4)

Still Alice

It’s been a slow year for decent female-led films. Julianne Moore has been building buzz around her role as a woman who discovers she has early-onset alzheimers. (12/5, limited)

Top Five

Animated films and Grown Ups movies aside, Chris Rock hasn’t been on our radar for a while, but when Top Five debuted at TIFF this year it was immediately what everyone was talking about. Chris Rock taps his best stand-up while exploring being black and famous. (12/11)

Exodus: Gods and Kings

If you’re over Middle Earth but still want some big screen epic action (with Christian Bale no less), this film’s got your back. And if it means Ridley Scott is getting back to Gladiator-level awesomeness, it should be a satisfying watch. (12/11)

Inherent Vice

The loopy, cool movie you’re film-geek friends will want to discuss. With a bit more humor than his usual, Paul Thomas Anderson weaves a groovy stoner-style mystery starring Joaquin Phoenix. (12/12, limited)

Mr. Turner

A British biopic of the eccentric painter J.M.W. Turner. Timothy Spall will be among award contenders playing the impassioned artist in director Mike Leigh’s latest. (12/18)

Big Eyes

This one might be iffy as the historical art drama hasn’t garnered a whole lot of accolade as of yet, but we’re willing to take a bet on Tim Burton, Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams almost any day. (12/24)

Unbroken

Angelina Jolie’s inspiration tale of war hero Louis “Louie” Zamperini (Jack O’Connell,) who was taken as a prisoner-of-war in WWII after surviving in a raft for a month and a half. Take Grandma, it’s almost guaranteed to be the inspirational tale of the year. (12/24)

The Interview

Intriguing due to the controversy around it and Kim Jong-Un’s apparent hatred for it. Basically after seeing Rogan and Franco in This Is the End we’re betting this could be just as hilarious. A good one to catch with friends once the family has cleared out. (12/25)

American Sniper

It’s not a true end of the year awards race without an entry from Clint Eastwood. Starring Bradley Cooper as America’s best sniper, coping with life in war, and outside of it. (12/25, limited)

Selma

If you live near a city you’ll likely be able to see this one before it goes nationwide in January, marking the 50th anniversary of the organization of the march from Selma to Montgomery, a turning point in the American Civil Rights movement. Critical consensus thus far is that director Ava DuVernay makes a name for herself with this timely historical drama. (12/25, limited)

A Most Violent Year

Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain are the new wave of hollywood elite, of the DeNiro and Streep variety. It’s a crime-thriller set in dirty 1981 NYC where an immigrant family attempts to capitalize on the American Dream. Might be the perfect grit to go with all that dessert you’ve been eating. (12/31)

Leviathan

Alright, this is for the arthouse families willing to find small theaters and in the mood for a more serious foreign film. But this drama around a family in a small fishing town has garnered serious praise thus far. (12/31, limited)

With the Family

Family-safe for when the small-talk AND the food has run out.

Penguins of Madagascar

The other Benedict Cumberbatch movie opening Thanksgiving week, and while this franchise seems overdone, from what we saw at Comic-Con it’s quite clever. Take your little sister. She’ll love you. (11/25)

The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies

For the family member obsessed with Tolkien, or for those who always finish a book even if they don’t like it. At least you’ll feel you got closure by watching this last installment in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit series. (12/16)

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

It’s the third in the franchise, so no guarantees on quality. But the gang’s all back, Stiller, Wilson, Gervais, and even Robin Williams. Might be nice to see just to see the latter one more time. (12/18)

Annie

Understand that we’re only trying to give you options that the whole family might enjoy. But as a musical re-make of an already cutesy film, we make no promises. Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, and Rose Byrne lead the family friendly foray. (12/19)

Into The Woods

A film version of Sondheim’s musical of fairy tale characters with real world problems sounds great. With Disney behind it, we worry they may soften it a bit. Either way it’s got an all-star cast including Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, and Chris Pine. (12/24)

Skip ‘Em

Trust us, these ones are likely not to be worth your precious time.

VHS: Viral (11/21)

Horrible Bosses 2 (11/25)

Extraterrestrial (11/28)

The Gambler (12/19)

The Mule (12/28)

Dying of the Light (12/5)

It’s been two years since Tim Burton brought us Frankenweenie and Dark Shadows. One of which was a lovely dark children’s story, and the other a sad and uninspiring take on a gothic soap opera. After these, and the so-bad-why-is-it-getting-a-sequel-? Alice in Wonderland, it’s an incredible relief to see something rather, well, normal coming from Tim Burton’s workhouse.

Big Eyes is the tale of mid-century artist Margaret Keane (Amy Adams), whose husband Walter (Christolph Waltz) took credit for the unique paintings Margaret made, featuring children with abnormally large eyes. The drama focuses on Margaret’s path to take ownership of her art and pull herself out of an abusive relationship.

If Burton employs the emotional mastery he showed us in Big Fish and even Edward Scissorhands, while letting the abstract art of Margaret Keane be the majority of his necessary strangeness factor, Big Eyes could be his most accessible film yet, and one that already looks to be full of great performances. If there’s one thing Burton does well, it’s a story about a misfit. We love you no matter what you do Burton, but when it’s a film we can show Grandma, even better!

Big Eyes is set for a Christmas Day release in the U.S. Check out the trailer below!