Word: wanda
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Fish Called Wanda...
...FISH CALLED WANDA. As writer and star, Monty Python Alumnus John Cleese leads a merrie band of jewelry thieves in a looney caper. Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline get the cartoon-comedy style just right...
Think of Otto (Kevin Kline) as Daffy Duck, a fellow whose foot -- when it's not in his mouth -- is always obsessively pressed to the emotional floorboard. Think of Ken (Michael Palin) as Elmer Fudd, a stammerer whose mild manner hides a ferocious temper. Think of Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) as -- big leap here -- Bugs Bunny, all wisecracks and cool deceit. And think of A Fish Called Wanda as the next best thing to a Looney Tunes-Merrie Melodies summerfest...
...steamroller and lives to yell about it -- at least until he is blown off the wing of an ascending airplane. Somehow, the admirable Crichton, a veteran director of postwar Ealing comedies (The Lavender Hill Mob), contrives to keep the cruelty as weightless as an animator's cel. Wanda defies gravity, in both senses of the word, and redefines a great comic tradition...
This year's no exception. Blackstone's Barb Dwyer, with Wicked-Wanda breasts and sinister snarl, is a formidable presence. Jason Tomarken, as Denuar, knows he's playing a stock character and plays with enthusiasn. But Michael Starr, as the billionaire's sixth wife, Libby Doe, turns in a-dare I say sensual?-rendition that few performers could manage. Although my only qualification to judge the performers is a stint covering the Theater of the Absurd that is Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Dianne Ferratwinkie (Maurice "Mo" Rocca) is the clear stand-out among Denuar's daughters. Rocca...