the fresh films reviews

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A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Director:
Charles Crichton

COUNTRY
United Kingdom

Genre
Comedy

NORWEGIAN TITLE
En fisk ved navn Wanda

RUNNING TIME
108 minutes

Producer:
Michael Shamberg
Screenwriter:
John Cleese


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Archie John Cleese ˝
Wanda Jamie Lee Curtis ˝
Otto Kevin Kline
Ken Michael Palin ˝
Wendy Maria Aitken
George Tom Georgeson ˝
Mrs. Coady Patricia Hayes

 

Review

Beautiful intro, elegant heist, clever denouement. This superb comedy of manners with a delightful hint of absurdity was the culmination of the collaboration between veteran British movie director Charles Crichton, who was 77 at the time and hadn’t directed a feature film since the 1960s, and Monty Python co-founder John Cleese, who wrote the script and starred as Archie Leach. The film is a brilliant observer of and commenter on the cultural differences between American gung-ho attitude and British stiffness, with a playful Jamie Lee Curtis and a peaking (comedy-wise) Kevin Kline as proponents for the former, and Cleese and Michael Palin as representatives for the latter. Not many comedies manage to be both silly and brainy at the same time, but A Fish Called Wanda does just that – as well as a few other things that might surprise you. Kevin Kline won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work, one of only a handful of times that has happened for a purely comedic performance.

Re-reviewed: Copyright © 31.10.2020 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang
Original review:
Copyright © 26.04.1996 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang

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