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#515 - A Fish Called Wanda
Charles Crichton, 1988
A team of thieves pull off a jewel heist but soon end up double-crossing one another or forming uneasy alliances in order to get their hands on the loot.
As a fan of both Monty Python and Fawlty Towers, it's amazing that it took me this long to watch John Cleese's third biggest contribution to comedy. Here, Cleese (who co-wrote the film with director Crichton) stars as a middle-aged English lawyer who becomes wrapped up in the aftermath of a massive jewel heist pulled off by four crooks of both English and American persuasions. An incredibly convoluted yet easy to follow series of developments result in one thief (Tom Georgeson) being arrested, but not before hiding the loot and trusting the key to another thief (Michael Palin), prompting the other two thieves (Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline) to do whatever it takes to recover the loot for themselves. To this end, Curtis tries to seduce the information out of several male characters (including Cleese's unhappily married family man) while Kline often ends up trying to outsmart or outfight every single opponent he encounters. Amidst all this, Cleese (and, to a lesser extent, Palin) must do their best to survive the crazy hijinks that they've been dragged into.
A Fish Called Wanda blends several different types of comedy together and manages to guarantee a constant stream of humour throughout the film. The main ensemble of characters is very well-developed. Cleese naturally channels the same sort of overly cultured and pompous twit that made him a sitcom legend yet with slightly more sympathy. Palin also gets to play a rather Pythonesque character as the perpetually stuttering and put-upon chew-toy of the group whose friendliness towards animals is constantly challenged by the increasingly absurd circumstances he finds himself in (such as being forced to murder a potential witness). Curtis may be somewhat limited as she plays a somewhat standard femme fatale whose own arc is basically tied to her bouncing between the other male characters out of both self-serving greed and genuinely wavering affection, but she sells it reasonably well. Of course, anyone who watches this film will come away remembering Kline above all else. By playing an extremely eccentric and pseudo-intellectual criminal with delusions of grandeur and some very peculiar mannerisms (to say nothing of his constant consternation with English customs in general), he effortlessly steals the show as he provides a non-stop barrage of verbal and physical jokes that understandably won him an Oscar.
The comedy is dark and sociopathic without ever crossing the wrong lines - if anything, it gets to the point where any seemingly genuine sense of sentimentality (such as the sincerely romantic relationship that develops between the very unlikely pairing of Cleese and Curtis) threatens to drag the film down. Of course, it moves along at a very brisk pace to keep up with its complex screwball plotting and relentless jokes. It's paced well enough that it never becomes too incoherent or difficult to follow. Though there are plenty of things that threaten to date the film severely, such as the background score that's full of peppy synthesisers and squealing guitars, for the most part A Fish Called Wanda still has enough staying power to guarantee some gut-busting laughs. It manages to mix up its comedy with a deft hand and has some excellent performers on hand to deliver the material with as much gleefully bizarre gusto as possible. Consider this highly recommended.
Charles Crichton, 1988
A team of thieves pull off a jewel heist but soon end up double-crossing one another or forming uneasy alliances in order to get their hands on the loot.
As a fan of both Monty Python and Fawlty Towers, it's amazing that it took me this long to watch John Cleese's third biggest contribution to comedy. Here, Cleese (who co-wrote the film with director Crichton) stars as a middle-aged English lawyer who becomes wrapped up in the aftermath of a massive jewel heist pulled off by four crooks of both English and American persuasions. An incredibly convoluted yet easy to follow series of developments result in one thief (Tom Georgeson) being arrested, but not before hiding the loot and trusting the key to another thief (Michael Palin), prompting the other two thieves (Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline) to do whatever it takes to recover the loot for themselves. To this end, Curtis tries to seduce the information out of several male characters (including Cleese's unhappily married family man) while Kline often ends up trying to outsmart or outfight every single opponent he encounters. Amidst all this, Cleese (and, to a lesser extent, Palin) must do their best to survive the crazy hijinks that they've been dragged into.
A Fish Called Wanda blends several different types of comedy together and manages to guarantee a constant stream of humour throughout the film. The main ensemble of characters is very well-developed. Cleese naturally channels the same sort of overly cultured and pompous twit that made him a sitcom legend yet with slightly more sympathy. Palin also gets to play a rather Pythonesque character as the perpetually stuttering and put-upon chew-toy of the group whose friendliness towards animals is constantly challenged by the increasingly absurd circumstances he finds himself in (such as being forced to murder a potential witness). Curtis may be somewhat limited as she plays a somewhat standard femme fatale whose own arc is basically tied to her bouncing between the other male characters out of both self-serving greed and genuinely wavering affection, but she sells it reasonably well. Of course, anyone who watches this film will come away remembering Kline above all else. By playing an extremely eccentric and pseudo-intellectual criminal with delusions of grandeur and some very peculiar mannerisms (to say nothing of his constant consternation with English customs in general), he effortlessly steals the show as he provides a non-stop barrage of verbal and physical jokes that understandably won him an Oscar.
The comedy is dark and sociopathic without ever crossing the wrong lines - if anything, it gets to the point where any seemingly genuine sense of sentimentality (such as the sincerely romantic relationship that develops between the very unlikely pairing of Cleese and Curtis) threatens to drag the film down. Of course, it moves along at a very brisk pace to keep up with its complex screwball plotting and relentless jokes. It's paced well enough that it never becomes too incoherent or difficult to follow. Though there are plenty of things that threaten to date the film severely, such as the background score that's full of peppy synthesisers and squealing guitars, for the most part A Fish Called Wanda still has enough staying power to guarantee some gut-busting laughs. It manages to mix up its comedy with a deft hand and has some excellent performers on hand to deliver the material with as much gleefully bizarre gusto as possible. Consider this highly recommended.