One of the best bits of this movie is how incompetent the characters were at fulfilling their part of the epic. Wouldn’t you be, too? I mean, who really does know how to send a not-quite-mermaid back to her water world? I didn’t study that in school. I’m not sure that playing D&D would have helped me much either.
This element could have been improved by having more than one source for the fairytale so that there were conflicts between the two versions. Also, I would have liked more ambiguity throughout. In particular, it would have been cool if there was some doubt about whether Story escape back to her world or got munched. It would have been a better movie, but it would have been hard to get it past the Hollywood masters.
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I thought the film did a good job of having there be doubt about Story's fate. When he chose the wrong people, and especially when everyone was right except for the healer, she seemed to be in a lot of danger.
I think as mermaid movies go, "Splash" can't be beat. Hehe. It's a compelling and funny story about how humans have lost their way, have drifted far from their original purpose and state of bliss, and how we'd all be happier if we could leave the rat race behind and go tool around the waters of Cape Cod with a good-looking fishwoman.
I mean, if you're going to make a sea nymph movie, you have to be able to top that, or what's the point?
I loved "Splash" when I was a kid. Hehe
I really enjoyed the fact that we didn't have to sit through the conversations where Cleveland tried to convince each person that the myth was real and he wasn't crazy. I was anticipating those scenes. On the other hand, the movie made it seem like everybody just came along willingly, with no skepticism, which seems rather odd.
Yeah, why was everyone so accepting? No skepticism? What was the collective IQ of this apartment complex?
"Splash" did a much better job portraying what it would be like to have a fishwoman in our midst. Remember how Tom Hanks just kept her in his apartment most of the time for fear of what people would think? And how she learned to talk normal by watching TV? I'm no expert on sea people, but her high-pitched squealing seemed more realistic than Story's whispers.
I expected the film to be a longer buildup to discovering what/who was in the pool, and a longer period of isolation where Cleveland communicates with Story and figures out her ... story. So the time spent solving the puzzle (who in the complex fit which role) I kind of enjoyed, though I'd side with earlier comments that at least some of the tenants weren't developed enough for me to feel they fit.
If the overall feel, mood, what-have-you, at the apartment complex had been more mythic and less realistic, then both the characters as archetypes and the fact that they didn’t doubt the story would have been easier to accept.
To rewrite a line from one of your favorites, kc:
Myth is exactly like where you are now only much more magical.
Excellent riff on Laurie Anderson, friend. Mucho excellent. And I'm flattered that you remember my fondness for her.
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