Saturday, February 25, 2006

Extra tartar sauce, please: "A Fish Called Wanda"

Jamie Lee Curtis is a curious actress.

While her mom, Janet Leigh, was considered a beauty -- look at how she got Norman Bates riled up -- nobody would say Jamie Lee has classic good looks. Heck, her long face and arched eyebrows can be downright creepy at times.

Yet there's something about the way she left behind her "scream queen" roots and proved herself adept at comedy. First came "Trading Places" -- also the big-screen debut of her bare breasts -- and later came "True Lies," an action movie in which she does some slapstick (and looks good in her underwear). I hear "Freaky Friday" wasn't bad, either, but I'm not exactly in that target demographic. (That's also before Lindsay Lohan fully blossomed, too.)

The apex of Jamie Lee's comedy exploits probably was "A Fish Called Wanda," a caper film also starring John Cleese and Michael Palin (of Monty Python fame), as well as Kevin Kline (more on him in a bit). We're coming up on 20 years since "Wanda" came out, but the movie -- and Kline in particular -- is still funny as hell.

Our story starts with Curtis, Kline and Palin stealing diamonds in a heist organized by Curtis's boyfriend, George (some British guy). It turns out Curtis and Kline are lovers, not brother and sister, but their plan to double-cross George hits a bump when George moves the diamonds before getting pinched by the cops. Enter Cleese, George's lawyer, whom Curtis hopes can get the location of the diamonds from George. Hijinks ensue.

All four main players are pretty funny, from Palin's stuttering animal lover to Cleese's buttoned-up barrister. But Kline definitely emerges as the wackiest of all, with his Otto fancying himself a philosopher but really just a sadist. While the scene with him, Palin and Palin's fish is quite funny -- "Avoid the green ones. They're not ripe yet" -- the best exchanges are between him and Cleese, including this one:

Otto (Kline): You pompous, stuck-up, snot-nosed, English, giant, twerp, scumbag, f*ck-face, d*ckhead, a$$hole.
Archie (Cleese): How very interesting. You're a true vulgarian, aren't you?
Otto: You're the vulgarian, you f*ck!

It was great to see Kline win an Oscar for this outrageous role, which I probably enjoy more than anything else he's done. That's saying something, considering "Dave" is funny, and I even liked "I Love You to Death." And while I haven't seen it, I understand "Cry Freedom" was hee-larious. Apartheid ... it's a riot!

1 Comments:

At 7:39 PM, Blogger Paul McElligott said...

Love this movie!!

There is a new DVD special coming out in August (it was supposed to be next week, but...).

 

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