Honestly, if this film had anyone else in it other than Robin Williams, who I have a great deal of respect for across the board, I would probably rate it lower than I did. This was released during a time when Williams was being explored with everyone as a serious actor instead of just raw comedy. He was extremely good at showing a wide range of emotions. Compare this with someone like Jim Carrey, who got his start by being just as over the top as Robin, but for the most part he failed in his serious acting conquests. Williams was kind of one of a kind in that he would be perfectly at home in almost any role, he was even decent as a villain in Insomnia.
So "The Fisher King" is a drama film that has a few moments of comedy and it stars a very fit Jeff Bridges and of course Robin Williams. Some might say it is decent but to me it was just kind of "meh."
So the story here is that Jeff Bridges plays a very successful "shock jock" in that he has a talk-radio show where people call in and he gives them advice. His advice is not necessarily sound though, it is meant to be funny and a bit mean. At one point he gives a man some dating advice and something terrible happens. He get's embroiled in the controversy surrounding this and kind of gets cancelled in a 90's sort of way before social media.
He is rather unremorseful about this and up to this point in his life he has been a bit of a narcissistic prick to almost everyone including his very caring girlfriend, who he mostly treats like an object.
Purely by chance after a night out getting drunk and feeling sorry for himself, he is saved by a homeless man from a vicious attack by street thugs who are trying to set him on fire. This is how he meets Parry, a rather deranged but friendly homeless man who has some serious issues. At first Jack (Bridges) doesn't want anything to do with this homeless person (because he is an arrogant prick) but then finds out that the reason why Parry is this way is a direct result of his insensitive comments on his radio show that resulted in tragedy striking his family.
Jack, now seeing the consequences of what he considered "harmless pranks" in the past now has a massive amount of remorse and tries to help Parry out, only to discover that Parry doesn't actually mind being homeless and seems to prefer that freedom to the life of being bogged down in responsibilities and obligations. Parry teaches him a lot about being truly free even though he is clearly nuts.
This part of the story is good but the part that kind of turned me off was how they put a love story in there that becomes the primary focus of the story.
Jack does his best to set Parry up with this girl that he has basically been stalking for a very long period of time and unlike how this situation would actually work out in real life with her being seriously weirded out when he reveals that he has been watching her for a year or so, she kind of likes that? I think?
There is some comic relief when these two get together because neither one of them are very good at social norms. It does get a bit ridiculous at times though because no matter how crude and uncivilized you are there is a better than average chance that you know it is not ok to belch repeatedly in a public restaurant. Maybe that takes you too far into specifics but the main part of this movie that was good, was the accidental relationship between Jack and Parry, the girl hijacking the story in my mind made the film worse. I suppose they had to do something though.
A few things happen that are pretty coincidental and tragic, but in the end the movie wraps up just about exactly how you thought it would when you were about 30 minutes into it.
I enjoyed this movie kind of but I think they had a wonderful opportunity to make it full on serious and it could have been a lot better. Williams is of course outstanding as he always is.
Should I watch it?
I'm on the fence with this one. On one hand I enjoy Robin Williams' performances but at other times I kind of grow tired of how he kind of needs to dominate every scene that he is in. I would imagine that he is pretty difficult to work with in this regard because you are never going to be able to match his maniacal energy levels. In this regard I feel as though he is quite similar to Jim Carrey. You kind of need to be in the right mood to enjoy him when he is going full steam ahead. I much prefer the emotional Williams such as was his role in Good Will Hunting, but this is just ok. I wouldn't go out of your way to see it, but if you got nothin' else to do, why not?
none of the major streaming sites have this film as part of their library, but you can legally rent or buy it for a few dollars.
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