Review of A Fish Called Wanda (1988) by Cara R — 17 Jul 2009

I thoroughly enjoy any comedy that can make me laugh at things I didn't think I would ever find funny, things that I normally would consider heinous or not worthy of lampooning or humorous content. A Fish Called Wanda has a running joke regarding the murder of cute domestic dogs. And each time it appears in the film I ended up laughing harder than before until I was howling at the last time it appears in the movie. And this was true of the running length of the film. This is an obscenely funny movie. It is either a brilliant salute to stupidity and buffonery, or perhaps it is a an attempt at brilliance by stupid buffoons. Either way it is likely one of the funniest films of its decade.

John Cleese's script reveals he has not lost any of the edge from his Monty Python days, and in many ways this feels like a Monty Python crime film. But the writing is not the only thing that should be hailed for this film; the performances are all top-notch. John Cleese himself is in the film as a lawyer who attempts to uphold himself with class but continually fails, and he is top-notch. One of his Python contemporaries, Michael Palin is also brilliant as a stuttering animal-lover. Much of their comedic stylings from that earlier show is present here, and it still has the zest it had in his earlier work. The two American actors who join them in this film, Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis, are shockingly amazing. Kline in particular is a riot as a Nietzche-obssessed criminal, and what makes him so fun is the fact that he prides himself as an intellectual and might be the dumbest person in the picture. Kline won an Oscar for this role, a rarity since comedic roles are rarely awarded, but definitely deserved. And Curtis...this may be one of her finest roles. I've never found Curtis particularly sexy, but she turns the heat up in this role, and her abnormal stimulation when a man is speaking Italian provides some great physical comedy, something I didn't expect from her.

Cleese was a very educated figure in the art of comedy when he wrote this. The film mixes the joys of dry absurdist British humor with the madcap stylings of American screwball comedy, and the result is a comedic gem. Warning: this is a very quotable film and is rewarding upon multiple viewings.