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Splash (1984)

"You see, drinking is a matter of algebraic ratio. How drunk you get is caused by the amount of alcohol you consume in relation to your total body weight. You see my point? It's not that you had too much to drink. You're just too skinny."


 It's really got nothing to do with the overall theme of the movie, but it was, for me, the funniest part.

I've seen this film a number of times; granted, the most recent of which was probably about a decade ago, owing to the fact that it wasn't one of my favorites as it's a little, well, ridiculous. 

We rented this one from Vudu, and the summary of the film contained some surprising information, as did a scene within the first twenty minutes or so. I'm always genuinely delighted to learn something new, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover a few things about Splash that I'd never known before, namely:

  1. This film was directed by Ron Howard. And according to the ending credits, his brother Clint makes a cameo. I didn't catch him this time; there will need to be a viewing sometime in the future to verify this.
  2. Splash earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay. What? WHAT? I mean, there was a lot of star power behind this particular vehicle (Hanx, John Candy, Daryl Hannah, Eugene Levy, and of course the aforementioned Ron Howard), but an Oscar for a movie about a man who falls in love with a mermaid? I wouldn't have expected that.
  3. Apparently, Hanx can juggle when he's properly motivated. It is not polite to ask what his proper motivation is.
I'm going to say something I never thought I'd say. Splash is a good movie. I'd always thought of it as rather silly, if impressive in its cast list. I watched it through new eyes, searching a little more carefully than I had in previous viewings for whatever it was the Academy had deemed worthy of a nomination. And wouldn't you know, I found it. The dialogue is actually clever, if you can believe that. There are jokes and subtle references throughout (I'd never noticed until now that Hanks' character Allen has a particular affinity for fish tanks both at home and in his office, despite his inability to swim). There are so many instances in which one has to very fervently stab the "I Believe" button, such as the fact that while the mermaid knows no English prior to stepping ashore, she's apparently a very adept ice skater. Hell, I spent the first 25 years of my life in New England, and I still can't goddamn ice skate. But ultimately, while the premise is laughable, the pacing is a bit slow, and there's just nowhere near enough of John Candy and his lovable wit, this was fun, far more than I'd expected it to be.

Given that I've seen Splash a number of times before, I didn't really expect anything particularly remarkable about it this time around. I figured I'd just sort of gloss over it and write a brief obligatory commentary and get on with it. But the beauty of this project, which I'm just starting to skim the surface of, is that there are so many hidden pearls in the catalog, a multitude of heretofore unseen gems just waiting to be discovered, should the explorer be intrepid enough. 

I didn't think it was possible to love Hanx more than I did when I started this thing. We're three movies in, and I can already see that I was dead wrong.

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