Review of The Fisher King (1991) by Jesse O — 15 May 2014

This might Gilliam's most accessible work and it is a pretty damn great movie at that with some surprisingly complex character development and an incredible cast. It's different from other Gilliam films in that the world isn't dystopian, there's no totalitarian government running amok, there's none of that here.

The film still has some of his trademarks though, there's still some fantasy aspects to the film, like the Red Knight that appears every time Parry is close to facing the reality of what happened, and the tight and bizarre camera shots when Jack is on the radio, both at the beginning and the end of the film, and that gives it a more surreal atmosphere than the regular, and more human camera angles after Jack meets Parry.

The film also has some pretty dark humor that, I'm sure, Gilliam had some influence on from his years as part of Monty Python. The film very effectively mixes drama, comedy, and fantasy into a very compelling character study about a man who's searching for redemption after inadvertently getting Parry's wife killed.

The film also explores Parry's emotional traumas after having gone through what he did and how he struggles to face the truth in order to finally be able to move on with his life. Really, the film is full of incredibly interesting and memorable characters, in the case Michael Jeter's character, who stole the scenes he was in.

The film really is wickedly funny, but it's never at the expense of the story or the characters that inhabit this world. Perhaps the only real complaint about the film I have is that everything was wrapped up in a nice bow at the end, it was almost TOO much of a perfect ending if you ask me.

Whether that was done on purpose in order to get you to doubt the veracity of the events that you just saw. The ending itself is satisfying, but it's almost TOO satisfying. It definitely gets you thinking about whether or not ***SPOILERS*** Parry ever made it out of his coma.

Perhaps it shouldn't even be a complaint if the intention was to create a doubt in your mind that something about this was off. The film sees the cast at their peak. Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges deliver among their best performances ever, but the real highlights are Mercedes Ruehl and Amanda Plummer, whose characters really are the driving force for most of the film's events, they're the heart and soul of this movie, and their performances are simply outstanding.

Big fan of this film, the story is touching without being nauseating, complex story about characters stuck in a state of arrested development, unable to move on with their lives for one reason or another.

Incredible movie here, definitely a must see.