The Fisher King
Jack Lucas: Did you lose your mind all at once, or was it a slow, gradual process?
A romantic tale for the broken and the insane.
Terry Gilliam, in his usual off-center, then hook a left and dive into the nearest rabbit hole; comes the closest he'll ever come to a commercial film with this one. The fantastical aspects are brought to life in the splintered mind of a heartbroken, disillusioned man who is helped by the egotistical prick who feels (understandably) responsible for the tragedy befallen him.
Robin Williams skirts the lines of tragic mental illness and heartbreak to the zany release of someone who has nothing more to lose and in that nothingness sees life, love and laughter in its pure essence sans social preconceptions.
Dragging him into his vision that has become the mask covering his pain, Parry (Williams) scoops up Jeff Bridges' self-absorbed, now unemployed shock-jock, Jack. Believing him to be the one to aid him in finding the grail.
What is found, while visiting the denizens of the homeless - my favorite being Michael Jeter's Ethel Merman enamored cross dresser. But then I really love the characters I've seen him play throughout the years - is a chance to heal a splintered heart when Jack helps Parry actually meet and go on a double date with the equally crazy Amanda Plummer's Lydia.
Through all of these crazy people, the one grounded, but equally broken Anne is exceptionally played by Mercedes Ruehl who had won an Oscar for her performance. In a sea of quirks, her character stands above and I thoroughly enjoyed both her performance and the character herself.
A strange tale that wanders down the rabbit-hole with a faded ticket to a missed train of a long gone legend to find the truly lost that had always been there in the first place.