- Title: A Fish Called Wanda
- IMDb: link
A hitman who quotes Nietzsche and believes the London Underground is a political movement, a stuttering animal lover who keeps accidentally killing small dogs, an English barrister stuck in a loveless marriage, a thief used as a patsy, and a woman named Wanda who wraps each one of them around her little finger to get what she wants. Rarely are romantic comedies this good.
A team of thieves set out to steal a fortune in diamonds only to turn on each other after the job is done. At the heart of the job is Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her boyfriend/patsy George (Tom Georgeson), her other boyfriend pretending to be her brother Otto (Kevin Kline), and the kind and sweet stuttering Ken (Michael Palin). The job goes just as planned and Wanda and Otto frame George for the crime not knowing that he has hidden the loot. Then against Otto’s objections Wanda then tries to get close to George’s barrister Archie Leach (John Cleese) in hopes of finding out where the diamonds have been hidden.
This is just a hysterically funny film. Kline’s Otto is a rather dimwitted crazed killer who reads philosophy which he can be often heard misquoting (the central message of Buddhism is every man for himself); he has a tendency to get into small fender benders leaving the scene with the same expletive each time. But whatever you do don’t call him stupid! And his quick thinking of trying to cover for Wanda with George’s wife (Maria Aitken) by pretending to be an operative informing the public about the debriefing of a KGB agent in the neighborhood is priceless. One of the plot threads has Otto pretending to be gay and infatuated with the stuttering Ken to through off his suspicion which gives us such great lines as yelling out “I love watching your ass when you walk. Is that beautiful or what? Don’t go near him, he’s mine,” in a crowded square.
Palin is perfect as Ken who is given the job of killing the only witness who can put George at the scene. The trouble is he can’t seem to hit her and keeps managing to accidentally kill off her small dogs. Cleese is perfect in the role of a stuffy Englishman in a loveless marriage who quite easily and naturally falls instantly in love with Wanda. And as for Curtis she has never been more vibrant and beautiful on screen as the three-timing Wanda who has a unique reaction to men who speak Italian or Russian.
Even though the DVD only comes with a small collector’s book and no extras on the DVD it’s still worth picking up. Kline’s performance alone is worth owning the DVD for and with Cleese, Palin, and Curtis it’s really a must have. A Fish Called Wanda is hysterically funny and one of the best romantic comedies of recent years. As a footnote for trivia buffs John Cleese’s real daughter Cynthia (Caylor) Cleese plays his daughter Portia in the film.