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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 75.47%
Worth A Look: 11.32%
Average: 3.77%
Pretty Bad: 5.66%
Total Crap: 3.77%
3 reviews, 35 user ratings
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| Fisher King, The |
by Godfather
"Why Pinocchio is looking for the Holy Grail in New York City"
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It is a rare event in Hollywood when a film can make you laugh so hard that your head hurts enough to make decapitation sound appealing. It is an even rarer event when that same film evokes such a strong desire to cry that every time you see it dehydration becomes a serious concern. And it is practically unprecedented in the history of film when that same film is so intelligent that it makes you ask yourself questions such as…
1. "What is your Holy Grail?"
2. "What is the thing in your life that you aspire to beyond all else?"
3. "What goal to you wish to achieve, and are willing to sacrifice all your life for, to obtain?"
4. "What do you need to save your soul?"
and still entertains the absolute fucking shit out of you.
When a film does all these things we must confer on it the enviable (if not overused) title of Classic (or Destined-To-Be-A-Classic). "The Fisher King" is one of those films.Jeff Bridges plays Jack Lucas, a very successful, arrogant, self-absorbed New York City shock jock who, unbeknownst to himself, has lost his soul. During a typical abusive tirade against one of his masochistic listeners he inadvertently causes said loser, Edwin, to lose his last grasp on sanity and to walk into a fashionable night club where he proceeds to shoot the patrons with a double-barrelled shotgun. Three years later Jack is a drunk living with (and occasionally working for) Ann (Mercedes Ruehl) in a seedy apartment above the video store she owns. He is incapable of working due to the devastating guilt he feels as the catalyst for the massacre.
As a last attempt to kill the pain he feels he contemplates suicide, the attempt aborted by two young thugs who beat him up and pour gasoline on him in order to burn him alive. He is rescued by Parry (Robin Williams), a homeless person and knight of the round table who, as we learn later, is the widower of a woman whom Edwin shot. Parry informs Jack of his quest to retrieve the Holy Grail from a New York billionaire, and reveals his secret love-from-a-far of a mousy office worker named Lydia (Amanda Plummer). When Jack decides to get Parry and Lydia together, and as a consequence inadvertently and unwillingly gets drawn into Parry's quest for the Holy Grail, his path to self-redemption starts begins.
Now, as if this combination of Arthurian tale and romantic drama-comedy of knights and damsels in distress is not enough, let's throw in some socially relevant commentary whereby we meet homeless people who are not crazy or dangerous but who are intelligent people with a story to tell. Still not enough? How about symbolism in the form of two underlying themes: the story of Pinocchio, the wooden boy who wanted to be real, and the question "Who is the Fisher King?" (Parry will tell you the story). Jack, Perry or both? Pretty intriguing huh?
If you want to just sit back and watch a movie that makes you laugh and cry and feel good about the world, "The Fisher King" will do that for you. If you want to go a step further down the often unlit staircase of movie appreciation and enjoy the social commentary on the plight of homeless people, Fisher King is the film to see. And if you want to make the leap into the dark pools of fantasy and symbolism, then Fisher King is the springboard from which you should dive. Whatever level you want to enjoy this movie on, it will be one of the greatest cinematic experiences of your life.For Hollywood BitchSlap, I'm the Godfather.
 del.icio.us 
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=2152&reviewer=142
originally posted: 10/03/99 00:03:00
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OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2007 San Francisco Film Festival For more in the 2007 San Francisco Film Festival series, click here.
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USA
02-Feb-1991 (R)
UK
02-Jul-1991 (15)
Australia
02-Jul-1991 (M)
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