Heartwarming / Big Fish

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• "They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops, and that's true. What they don't tell you is that when it starts again, it moves extra fast to catch up."
• Ed's death. Both versions, particularly when we see the real-life counterparts of the people in his tall tales attend the funeral.
  "You become what you always were: a very big fish."
• Now that Will has gotten closure with both his father and his tendency for tall tales, we're treated to an epilogue of how own son sharing his grandfather's tall tales to his friends. And the final shot is of the eponymous big fish (symbolic of Edward's spirit) swimming free in the river.
  • Better still, as opposed to Will's promise to be the kind of father who won't fill his son's head with "made-up stories", he's more supportive in letting his son pass on his grandfather's stories.
• Young Sandra's reaction at seeing Edward return after everyone (even the army) thought he was dead.
• All of Edward's stories (while exaggerated) are real. The only truly fabricated story was the one about the Catfish. If one thinks about it, this shows Edward's deep love for his son. He completely fabricated a story to help make up for his absence at the birth of his son, the son he loves very much.
  • His saving of Spectre is particularly heartwarming, because while he, himself, doesn't have a lot of money, everyone he's helped make successful over the course of his life does, and chips in to help save it, even if they've never set foot in it before.
• Edward's known life and circumstances are pretty blue collar given his fantastic reputation as a storyteller and how many adventures and situations he gets himself into. Then note that every story includes something that Edward does not for himself, but for the subject of the story. Edward may not be the richest man, but he helped a lot of people, and helped some of them get rich, while Edward is merely content to have the story to tell about it later.
• Although sad on paper, Jenny signing over her house to Edward after he rejects her is the highest form of love she can give. She previously denied him the signature because there was nothing in it for her. So not only is she respecting Edward's loyalty to his family, but she's also helping him complete his mission to save Spectre.
• Sobering as it is, after Winslow's first bank robbery, he's surprised to see his impromptu 'partner in crime' Edward only "stole" the money he was going to put in the bank. He takes the time to hear out Edward's story about how the bank they just robbed has already been robbed so many times that they had no money left. In a (rather grey-area) change of heart, Winslow decides he'll rob city banks to spare small-time banks like this one the trouble. In exchange for this eye-opening experience, Winslow eventually uses his share of the money to repay Edward by paying him enough money to buy the home his family would come to live in.
  • In the epilogue, not only have Will and Josephine moved into it, but raise their son there. Looks like the house will live on as one of Edward's legacies of his kindness.
• Although sad unto itself, Jenny's story of how Edward ultimately... turned down starting an affair with her is the highest form of What You Are in the Dark. For all his life, Will mistakenly thought his father's absence was because he was having an affair and had a "second family" (really it was his travelling salesman job). But after hearing Jenny's side of the story, he sees second-hand he loved both his son and his wife too much to ever have this 'second family'. For all his flaws, this proves Edward's integrity.
  • Fridge-Heartwarming: When musing over why Edward would remain loyal to his wife and family, Jenny describes that Edward loved his family because they were "real". For the better part of his life, Will resented the idea that perhaps his father loved these made up stories more than he did dealing with reality with his family. But at hearing Jenny say his loved his family for being "real", it's possible it helped Will realize his father valued reality more than he fancied.
• This movie is one of the few (if not only) instances where Fantasy and Reality are not at odds, but rather reconciled. In a different story, Fantasy would ultimately be scorned for not being as real as, well, reality (and that's not always a bad thing). But in this movie, the two concepts work hand in hand to give both Edward and Will a rather happy ending. While learning about the true story (Reality) helped Will recognize the context behind his father's catfish story, it's also fabricating Edward's ultimate fate (Fantasy) that taught him to be more appreciative of his father's stories.
  • Building on that, when the doctor tells Will the real story of how his father missed out on his birth, he apologizes that it wasn't the big grandiose tall tale he heard his whole life. Will, who has believed his etire life that Edward told this story to get attention, begs to differ: he likes the true story because it's real. If anything, it helps him paint his father in a different light: instead of being a narcissist who liked to talk about himself, he was a loving father who wanted to make up for missing his beloved son's birth the only way he knew how, stories.
• When Spectre is dying and in debt, Edward buys its debts at an auction. The bid started at $10,000, but Edward went the extra mile: he bid $50,000! Even though he left, that's just how much he valued Spectre.

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