Tim Burton is a brilliant director with a flair for creativity that exceeds a huge portion of movie directions working in Hollywood (and elsewhere) today. The dynamics between the Bloom's father-and-son conflict are handled in a believable way by Burton, even in Edward's stories are not believable at all. .

             ISSUE #1: A deep issue that comes to the surface in this father-son standoff is death and dying; that situation creates a need in this family where the son wants very badly to say goodbye to his dad with everything that once was between them brought out in the open. The son wants closure. It is a gallant thing on his part to search for the truth in his dad's stories, because he is aware that if his dad dies before all the questions are resolved (even if the questions were not answered in a way that is satisfactory to the son), there will always be that lingering, unfinished agenda.

             In Will's mind, all the stories about how his dad was fearless in the face of witches, giants, snakes and trees that attack humans need to be addressed honestly by his dying dad. But this desire on the part of Will is frustrated by the fact that his dad is either in denial that the stories were told (and told truthfully or not), or just unwilling to admit to his son that all those tall tales over all those years were just at worst lies, and at best, embellished story-telling. .

             Will has not had a conversation with his father for years because he's upset with his dad's tall tales, but Will has now returned from Europe because his father is in ill health. Will hangs around his ill dad (who is literally on his deathbed) ".and hurls sarcastic daggers at [his dad's] stories, reminding Edward that he was a traveling salesman, not a roguish adventurer," writes Phil Villarreal in the Arizona Daily Star. .

             Gradually, though, after setting out in search of clues about his father's real life, "William learns that truth is made up of much more than facts.