It's my understanding that A Fish Called Wanda is often regarded as one of the funniest films of all time. However, after watching it I'm perplexed as to why it's quite so highly regarded as to me it was barely funny at best.
There isn't much wrong with the basic idea behind the film and the idea of the protagonists double-crossing each other in an attempt to get the stolen loot certainly holds a lot of promise, but sadly this was just a really big missed opportunity.
For a start, the characters aren't very well-written and sadly the gags are very one- note and repetitive. Michael Palin's character Ken Pile has a stutter and that's about it - it's mildly amusing at first, but when that's the only funny thing about his character it wears thin very quickly. I'm also surprised that Kevin Kline won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Really? Perhaps he should have won the award for Best Overacting Actor. God was he irritating in this film - he shouted all the time, randomly spoke in a stupid Italian accent for no apparent reason, and he was just generally annoying. Later in the film we see Pile trying to take out a witness to the robbery, but every time he tries to kill her he ends up killing her dogs - it wasn't that funny the first time, but to have this as the only running gag shows a real lack of imagination and I must admit that this is very lazy and disappointing (and as one of the writers Cleese must burden some of the responsibility for some of its failings).
The only moderately interesting aspect of the story was the relationship between Wanda and Leach. Leach is a believable character - a middle-class man stuck in a loveless marriage who merely wants a bit of excitement in his life. Leach is quite a likable guy & Cleese's dead pan expressions and excellent comic timing do help to keep the film mildly tolerable. It's a shame that the material here is thin and largely unfunny. However, Cleese's and Curtis' acting are the best things about this film and their scenes together are easily the best in the film.
However, the final nail in the coffin was the ending which I found to be utterly ridiculous and totally unbelievable. A Fish Called Wanda is a film that seems to be loved by the masses, but it's appeal is something of a mystery to me.
There isn't much wrong with the basic idea behind the film and the idea of the protagonists double-crossing each other in an attempt to get the stolen loot certainly holds a lot of promise, but sadly this was just a really big missed opportunity.
For a start, the characters aren't very well-written and sadly the gags are very one- note and repetitive. Michael Palin's character Ken Pile has a stutter and that's about it - it's mildly amusing at first, but when that's the only funny thing about his character it wears thin very quickly. I'm also surprised that Kevin Kline won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Really? Perhaps he should have won the award for Best Overacting Actor. God was he irritating in this film - he shouted all the time, randomly spoke in a stupid Italian accent for no apparent reason, and he was just generally annoying. Later in the film we see Pile trying to take out a witness to the robbery, but every time he tries to kill her he ends up killing her dogs - it wasn't that funny the first time, but to have this as the only running gag shows a real lack of imagination and I must admit that this is very lazy and disappointing (and as one of the writers Cleese must burden some of the responsibility for some of its failings).
The only moderately interesting aspect of the story was the relationship between Wanda and Leach. Leach is a believable character - a middle-class man stuck in a loveless marriage who merely wants a bit of excitement in his life. Leach is quite a likable guy & Cleese's dead pan expressions and excellent comic timing do help to keep the film mildly tolerable. It's a shame that the material here is thin and largely unfunny. However, Cleese's and Curtis' acting are the best things about this film and their scenes together are easily the best in the film.
However, the final nail in the coffin was the ending which I found to be utterly ridiculous and totally unbelievable. A Fish Called Wanda is a film that seems to be loved by the masses, but it's appeal is something of a mystery to me.