A Fish Called Wanda - P-p-p-perfect f-f-film

There are some films that probably shouldn't work… and yet they just do.  I often wonder (or should that be 'Wanda?') how 'A Fish Called Wanda' was pitched to the studio?  An English barrister falls in love with a jewel thief and must go about double-crossing her former CIA lover while a man with a horrendous stutter accidentally murders every innocent animal he comes into contact with.  I think that's what they call a 'hard sell.' However, I guess when the barrister is played by John Cleese, his lover Jamie Lee Curtis, the insane ex CIA spook Kevin Kline and the speech-impaired Michael Palin, it somehow manages to come together in the 'perfect storm' of crime, comedy and classic film-making.

I've often heard films being criticised when they 'split genres,' i.e. when a outright comedy film suddenly tries to be all serious and dramatic etc.  This can kind of wrench a viewer out of the world they were currently enjoying.  However, 'A Fish Called Wanda' seems to be able to flit between genres effortlessly and without any jarring effect on the audience.  I guess it's mainly a comedy, yet it encompasses not just strong elements of a 'crime/heist' genre, but ultimately it's a romance, too (and drama!).

Despite all four main cast-members actually being pretty bad representations of human beings (you could argue that Michael Palin's 'Stuttering Ken' is a sympathetic character, but he seems quite able to murder innocent old ladies in order to save his friend's skin!), we do care about them all.  Even the psychopathic 'Otto' (Kevin Kline, who deservedly won a 'Best Supporting Actor' Oscar for his outlandish performance) is a tragic sort of person who we can't help but enjoy watching just to see how bonkers he's going to get and eventually what comeuppance awaits him.

I would say that this is a film that 'appeals to everyone,' but it definitely covers 'adult themes' meaning you're going to have to be okay with s3x, violence and plenty of foul language - not to mention some cruelty to animals (no matter how blatantly comic it's portrayed!).  But the best thing about 'A Fish Called Wanda' is that I originally watched it in the eighties and I loved it.  Now, around thirty years later I find myself loving it and laughing along as much as I did back then.  It's almost as timeless as 'Fawlty Towers' and could well have been filmed today (minus the reference to Margaret Thatcher and the ease that the characters are able to infiltrate Heathrow airport's security - well, it was pre 9/11 I guess).

10/10 The Monty Python Knights of Camelot are currently looking for this