Fishing Hole

I recently watched the Terry Gilliam-directed movie The Fisher King. And no point being coy about it, I was disappointed. For a man who seems to almost take pride in doing the unconventional (things like 12 Monkeys or Brazil), The Fisher King was a a surprisingly conventional movie.

The story centers around a radio shock jock played by Jeff Bridges, whose off-handed but callous remark on the air spurs a caller to go murder several people in a night club before killing himself. It sends Bridges' character into an emotional nose dive that even his girlfriend (Mercedes Ruehl) can't pull him out of. But then a chance enocunter with a homeless man (Robin Williams) man starts to change things. They turn out to have an important connection, and the former radio man soon comes to feel that helping this homeless man will be the key to getting his own life back on track.

It's all really a bit too neat, if you ask me. For example, in the first few scenes, it seems like the movie is really going to dig into the actual feelings one might have if he felt himself responsible for a horrible tragedy. But then the seriousness fades away in favor of a Hollywood-esque presentation of the "wise-crazy man." It's a rather trite little "they help each other" plot line that you've seen in plenty of other movies.

It's not by any means a total loss. There's an interesting runner about a particular hallucination that Williams' character experiences, and Terry Gilliam presents that with a really artistic flair that just looks cool on film. The performances in the movie are also fairly strong, particularly that of Jeff Bridges, who keeps things grounded as the action (and Robin Williams) sometimes goes broad.

Still, for all the talk I've heard about this movie over the years, I was expecting more. And I'm not really recommending it myself. I rate it a C-.