The Fisher King is by no means a great movie. It’s more like a great mess. The beginning is slow and choppy. The ending…well there is about 3 or 4 endings in the movie. There are subplots that are picked up and dropped for no reason (especially the whole homeless bit). But, for about an hour in the movie (from when Jack meets Parry on top of the car to when Parry goes to the hospital) where it is damn near a perfect movie. In that section, the movie is flawless. There is an amazing dance scene in Grand Central Station and quiet, intimate, powerful scenes with a single character. And in that hour movie magic happens. But what happens with the rest of the movie?

Jack (Jeff Bridges) is a Howard Sternesque shock jock in this movie. He’s an obnoxious morning disc jockey who makes fun of people and has a cast of wackos who call in. In this morning one of them calls in talking about a woman he’s smitten with. Jack makes an off the cuff comment about the woman being a preppy and how preppies are evil and should be wiped off the face of the earth. The caller takes him too literally and opens fire at a preppy bar killing people. And Jack goes off the deep end.

We pick up a couple years later. Jack has hit rock bottom. He’s living with (and in a relationship with) a video store owner named Anne (amazingly played by Merceded Ruehl). After watching the pilot of a TV show that he had been offered the lead in, Jack gets drunk…again…and decides to off himself. His suicide is interrupted by a couple teens who like beating up homeless people. Jack is then rescued by Parry (Robin Williams) an insane semi-homeless person who fights back by having the homeless sing show tunes while Parry hits them with rocks. Jack finds out that Parry went insane after his wife was killed in the shooting that started the movie.  Now Jack feels like he needs to help Parry, so he tries to help Parry woo his dream girl…a mousy office worker named Lydia (Amanda Plummer). And this is where the magic starts. Gilliam’s wild fanciful world takes over and makes the movie magical.

Later the magic wears off and the multiple endings and plot points that had disappeared suddenly reappear and the movie limps to a ending and then another and then another. The ending leaves us with a bad taste in our mouth. But the magical middle stays with us longer. The screenplay was by Richard LaGravenese, who did some great work in the 1990s (including The Ref with Dennis Leary). Gilliam brings his wonderful design sense to the city of New York and makes it beautiful and ugly and wonderful. Parry’s insanity is shown visually by a Red Knight stalking him through Central Park.

And I can’t say enough about Mercede Ruehl as Anne. She’s a street smart video store owner who looks and sounds like a typical big hair Jersey/Brooklyn woman. She has a vulnerable center underneath her tough exterior and does an amazing job showing both side simultaneously. Michael Jeter does a great comic turn as the drag queen cabaret singer. And this is a good Robin Williams movie. He plays a dirty, crazy, impulsive man who has a deep pain, yet falls in love with Lydia. And Amanda Plummer plays Lydia a mousy, scared woman who is trying desperately to play a touch and jaded woman, but is ultimately unsuccessful.

The courtship of Parry and Lydia is the heart and soul of this movie. And the 30 second breakup speech by Lydia is a great and heartbreaking speech by a woman who wants something in life, but doesn’t know what and doesn’t know how. Parry knows he wants Lydia, but doesn’t know what to do. When they are ultimately paired up, it’s a hilarious and touching relationship.

The Fisher King is a magical fantasy comedy drama. It can run you through the gamut of emotions and leave you laughing between the tears during the heart of the movie. With a better producer and/or editor, the movie could have been amazing, but we’ll always have that magical hour.