Product: The Fisher King [VHS] (1991)
Rating: 3.0
Brilliant but erratic
First, it's worth viewing to see the acting skills of Williams and Bridges, both of whom could steal a scene (or movie) from any lesser actor. Bridges's slide into utter social ruin is poignant in light of Williams's similar emotional and mental meltdown, directly influenced by Bridges's comments (in his role as a radio show host). The paranoia and borderline personality of Williams is carefully weighed against his environment, his love for a clumsy, uncoordinated wallflower (Lydia), and the wretchedness of being homeless; yet this is almost poetically justified by his spouting words of romance and Shakespeare.In contrast, Bridges totally loses himself and all respectability (if he had any as a ranting, raving DJ named Jack Lucas) by his collapse into alcoholism and neglect after being fired as a result of a tragic response to an on-air retort. Cheers also to Mercedes Ruehl in her Oscar-winning role as a heart-on-her-sleeve video store owner who completely captures the potential and soul of a woman waiting for the man in her life (Bridges) to come to his senses, values, and scruples and marry her before she gets yet another broken heart.But it's not a love story; this is more of a "man's search for meaning" mission, and the visual glimpses into the shattered mind of Williams's character as he mourns the death of his wife and his sense of purpose (to find the Holy Grail) are not for the insensitive and insecure. This movie really does give a biting, satirical look at those who flaunt their sense of power in the radio industry and the real tragedy that the homeless and mentally ill face on an everyday basis. Worth also seeing to note the differences between Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" mentally ill and the patients in the hospital here. A stunning round of applause also for Michael Jeter as an over-the-top flaming transvestite who delivers the singing telegram-of-a-lifetime in an accounting firm.