Un pesce di nome Wanda

Charles Crichton may have 78 years old, when he made this movie, it didn't prevent him from making a lively, successful and above all funny. The making is dynamic and inventive. But the main strength of the movie is the screenplay. It's certainly a bit vulgar but it's very strong, inspired and full of little details which kick the bull's eye. Let's add that it contains also unexpected reversals of situation. This, in order to start again the attention and to put forward the characters' cupidity and egoism towards the loot. The best example are the moments when Otto and Wanda are denouncing Georges to the police to take advantage of the loot; but they don't know where the loot is. The other moment is during the trial when Cleese's calling involuntarily Wanda "darling". He's betraying his wife and provoking Georges' anger... Above all, it's impossible to neglect the humour of the movie. It's black, caustic and a bit devastating. The greatest moments are: the liquidation of the old lady's dogs. Besides, these dogs are really pieces of junk when they're barking. Otto who becomes an executioner near the end of the movie when he's devouring Ken's fishes so as to make him tell the truth about the diamonds. At last, the actors are irresistible, especially Kevin Kline (he won an oscar for his performance in 1989), fervent admirer of Nietzche's philosophy, Michael Palin, an old and stammerer boy who loves animals.

At the end, not any injuries time and a comedy held up by outstanding actors.

Took me longer than I prefer to admit before actually seeing this movie even though I'm a huge fan of John Cleese and his work.. And I honestly had no idea who Kevin Kline even was before watching this. Winning an Oscar for best actor in a comedy was not normal in the 80's but he stole every scene he was involved it and he deserved it to say the least. Every actor did their job well and I can tell they had fun making this.

I read somewhere that the entire movie was written around the final scene with the truck and the "limey" sement.. How they turned a simple idea like this into a heist-comedy is beyond me but they made it work somehow, and it worked well.

This is an absolute classic!

What makes this old friend so very funny? There are lots of great setpiece sequences, like Michael Palin running over Kevin Kline in slow motion. It's the energy that Kline gives to his Oscar-winning role, the way Jamie Lee Curtis double crosses everyone, Michael Palin's stammer, Tom Georgeson's malign mastermind, the clockwork jewel robbery..... but mostly its the mean-spirited selfishness that suffuses every moment of it. It's pretty much unique for British comedy, which always seems to have a soft spot some place for the little fellow. Even the Boultings, at their most vicious, have that normative core , a sense of right and wrong, to grimace dourly at the actions of their petty tyrants.

This movie, however, makes no such claim. In fact, Cleese's monologue about the stifling, lifeless way in which the British are terrified of saying the wrong thing the terror of asking about the spouse and being told she left that morning... it's not a comedy of embarrassment. It's a comedy of shamelessness, and pretty much unique. And anyone who talks about 'poor taste' doesn't get it. It's meant to be tasteless.

This is the only film I ever paid to see two days in a row. I missed too much of it the first time because of my own hysterical snorting laughter.

This is a work of comic genius. And, like any good film, the screenplay is at the heart of the belly laughs. Every character is given a detailed personality quirk or two, and then it is shamefully exploited for laugh after laugh. Note for example, John Cleese's speech to Jamie Lee Curtis about how awful it is to be British - the eternal fear of embarrassment. Moments later, he is caught buck naked in a marital tryst in some else's flat by the people to used to live in his own home. Also, the funny-offensive envelope is pushed to the limit when K-K-K-Ken (Michael Palin), the passionate animal lover inadvertently kills three innocent dogs in his attempt to murder an old woman who would otherwise be a prosecution witness. Now that's funny!

Cleese's character, Archie Leach (Carey Grant's real name) is a likable buffoon of a lawyer, happy in his banal existence until he meets the sexy American, Wanda (Jamie Lee). I cannot even being to describe the plot beyond that point without doing it a grave disservice. It twists and dangles about in a world of double-cross and goldfish-eating for no other reason than to set up a joke.

You cannot speak of this film without mention of Kevin Kline as Otto, a role that won him a richly-deserved Oscar. Otto is the ex-CIA "weapons man" who makes it his business to read philosophy but would be more at home with Curious George. An obsessive, self-indulgent, painfully stupid, violent, deceitful, gullible egomaniac, the character of Otto is amongst the best comedic performances ever delivered.

The film's funniest scene takes place at Leach's (Cleese) house. In a scene that rivals anything that has ever hit the screen for laughs, the film and its scripts looks deep enough into itself to even give Cleese's dry-as-toast wife a laugh or two. Then, later on, this scene proves to be the set up for even more jokes. A Fish Called Wanda is pure comedy and every scene either provides a laugh or sets one up - it graciously does not waste our time trying to be moral or turning into a formula car-chase flick.

My comments are choppy but so is this movie. If you see it and don't laugh, check your pulse. We have only been given a handful of good comedies in the last decade. A Fish Called Wanda is a treasure. **** out of ****.

NOTE: TBS and some other TV networks show this film with the "offensive language" edited out. It kills the movie - if you can't hack the language, pass this one over.

Four crazy characters team up to steal diamonds, and then try to doublecross each other. Georges Thomason (Tom Georgeson) is the elder. Wanda Gershwitz (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a vixen who play all the men like a fiddle. Otto (Kevin Kline) is blindly in love with Wanda and easily goes violently crazy. Ken Pile (Michael Palin) is the stuttering animal lover. When the double-crossing begins, Georges' attorney Archie Leach (John Cleese) is dragged into the chaos.

The wacky craziness is punctuated by Michael Palin and Kevin Kline. They've created two of the craziest most memorable characters. Who can truly forget Kevin Kline shoving that fish back in his mouth? It helps that Jamie Lee Curtis is both beautiful and ballsy. It serves her well in this movie.