MGM (Michael Shamberg-Prominent Features)
A Fish Called Wanda, a funny and enjoyable farce, is based on an original screenplay by John Cleese and Charles Crichton (who directed).
Kevin Kline, who won the best supporting Oscar, steals every scene he is in due to his perfect comic timing and impressively physical performance.
Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis (for a change cast in a good role), and Michael Palin pull off a tricky robbery, but they still need the assistance of a rigid and stuffy barrister (John Cleese) to make their successful gate away.
The film was a good reminder of the admired Monty Python TV series, in which Cleese and Palin (among others) began their careers.
Oscar Nominations: 3
Director: Charles Crichton
Screenplay (Original): John Cleese
Supporting Actor: Kevin Kline
Oscar Awards: 1
Supporting Actor
Oscar Context
The most nominated film in 1988, Rain Man received four Oscars out of its 8 nods, including Best Picture, Director, and Actor (Dusting Hoffman).
The other Best Picture nominees represented a mixed bag in terms of genre and artistic quality:
“Dangerous Liaisons” and “Mississippi Burning,” each with 8 nominations, Mike Nichols’s comedic fable “Working Girl,” with 6, and Kasdan’s literary adaptation “The Accidental Tourist,” with 4.
This was Kevin Kline’s first and only nomination in a category that included vet Alec Guinness in “Little Dorrit,” Martin Landau in “Rucker: the Man and His Dream,” River Phoenix in “Running on Empty,” and Dean Stockwell in “Married to the Mob.”
