The film is based around the 'stories' that Edward Bloom tells us and his son ,Will, about some of the extraordinary events in his life. These fantastical adventures then become the root of a dispute between father and son as Will believes that he doesn't actually know that much about his Dad, only about the protagonist in the stories he tells; whereas his father swears that he his telling the truth.
This blurred line between truth and lies is something that continues throughout the entire film. At first the viewer believes the tales they hear to be a true account to what actually happened, but as the film goes on they begin to become more doubtful of the honesty in them; making them go through a similar journey to Will as he also believed his father when he was younger, but as he aged he developed a distrust in the stories, therefore a distrust in his dad. This then became detrimental to Edwards Blooms relationship with his son as Will believed his father to be lying but Edward remain adamant he is telling the truth. This then leads to a curious line of thought for the audience because they do not know who to trust, as logic would like with Will's view of the idea that his dad is just an old man who wants a more extravagant life than he actually led, but the romanticised stories about Edward Bloom are hard not to want to believe. This uses of conflict between truth and lies therefore acts as a tool to keep the audience engaged as they want to see how the situation dissolves as the ambiguity is an incentive to keep watching.
The magic realism that is used throughout the film is tainted by Wills viewpoint on the stories, as it acts as a constant reminder to the reader as to what 'reality' really is. There is one scene towards the end of the film, which you can watch here, where the story of Wills birth is put straight. Within the scene the doctor says 'if I had to choose between the true story and some elaborate version including a wedding ring and a fish, I would choose the fancy version', suggesting that perhaps it isn't always the best to have the truth, sometimes a different version of reality can be better. This then poses the question that is the truth actually as important as we think it is? Does it actually change anything, as Edward Bloom lived his whole life on supposedly fabricated stories, yet he seemed happy in the end of it all.
At the end of the film it is revealed that the stories were not in fact lies, but just exaggerated. The two headed singer was in just fact a set of twins, the giant was just a really tall man and so on. This raises the thought that perhaps Edward Bloom himself is just an exaggerated example of ourselves, as we all exaggerate in everyday life, whether we do it consciously or not, thus he is more relatable to the audience as he is just an extreme example of a trait that everyone has. Furthermore, it gives Will some peace of mind as he realises that he knew his father better than he thought he did, some of the facts were just slightly distorted thus also giving the audience some closure on their relationship.
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