Splash (1984)

Splash is a decent movie with a reasonably well developed plot and a talented cast. The highlight of the movie is certainly the chemistry between Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah, it is very sweet, at times quite heartwarming, it was certainly a complicated relationship to pull off and they did not seem to have any trouble with it. The weakest factor is certainly the fact that their relationship never feels in real danger, romantic comedies usually have their ups and downs, as this one does, but there is never a sense that they may never get back together, there is always a large sense of hope, which winds up bland for the audience. I also felt they did not work on the potential of the mermaid as well as they could have, it did not feel enough like a fantasy, it was far too grounded and hardly imaginative, the scene in the bathtub and the part where she says her name are the only moments that truly represent the promise of the mermaid premise. It is riddled with flaws, but great chemistry make Splash worth a look if you ever see it on television and are looking for a romantic comedy, just do not go out of your way to see it. A young boy who is saved from drowning by a mermaid ends up falling in love with her 20 years later. Best Performance: Tom Hanks / Worst Performance: Eugene Levy

and that goes unquestionably for John Candy, as well. The two make for a great pairing as dysfunctional brothers. Oh, and Eugene Levy. Aw hell, the whole thing's hilarious; great dialogue, deceptively light-n-fluffy story, and Daryl Hannah is perfect as a naive, child-like mermaid. I don't usually go for romantic comedies, but SPLASH is a winner. Genuinely funny, sentimental and easy to see why this movie was such a hit. Tee funny lines just come one after another.It'll make a softy out of anyone.8/10

This is a true "fish-out-of-water" comedy and one of my favorites. It is a good example of perfect casting (especially Darryl Hannah as the mermaid and John Candy as the lovingly in-the-way brother) and a cast working well together. It is one of my two favorite mermaid movies along with Aquamarine. It starts off with Tom Hanks's character as a young boy being rescued from drowning by Hannah's character at the same age. It picks up later at the time the movie was set in New York City. Hanks is a busybody who runs into the mermaid again, except he doesn't recognize her (would you?, and he falls in love with her.My favorite scenes are the Statue of Liberty scene, the department store scene with the TV sets and where she learns English, and where Eugene Levy is spraying the wrong people with water trying to prove that she's a mermaid.This is a must for anybody who loves comedy and a movie with Tom Hanks, Darryl Hannah, and/or John Candy in it. A movie with those actors in it can't be that bad in it, and this is GREAT. I loved it and you will too.*** 1/2 out of ****

This amusing fantasy about a love affair between an ordinary working New Yorker (Hanks) and a mermaid (Hannah) could have been made a generation ago by Walt Disney except for one marvelous -- and, in my opinion, highly artistic -- scene in which Daryl Hannah emerges from New York harbor wearing a pair of supernally beautiful legs and nothing else. Her naked buns, paragons of sensual grace in themselves, would probably have made old Walt think twice, although any normal man would want to jump on her and squeeze and bite them.Hanks has met her by accident, literally, and she's everything a guy like Hanks could want. She seeks him out in New York, moves in with him, learns to speak and dress properly, loves him deeply (as only a mermaid can love deeply), and is a sexual dynamo. There is no anatomical difficulty with this since when she's out of the water, Hannah has those legs. It's only IN water, or splashed by it, that her piscatorial particulars reappear. Eugene Levy, as an ill-tempered and egomaniacal ichthyologist, feels there's something fishy about this stunning catch of the day. The movie is funny but Levy brings it to a loopy climax that the kids will love. The ending, though wistful, is basically a happy one. They have both learned what true love is. They have "gotten in touch with their feelings." (I love that phrase.) Ron Howard, the director, would never dream of having the audience leaving the theater without a glow.Since it's intended to be a fantasy, we can skip the illogic of the plot. Well, not "illogic." Just an absence of logic. She learns to speak English in one afternoon just by watching television. Well, why not? Peter Sellars learned how to live by watching television a few years earlier. Still, one wonders where she learned to kiss so hungrily, fresh from the sea.At any rate, most of the humor is of the "cute" variety rather than sophisticated and edgy. This is Ron Howard, not Billy Wilder. Hanks asks her name. She tells him in Ichthyese and it shatters every television screen in sight. So they stroll through the streets of the city and try to dream up a plausible English name for her. They reach Madison Avenue. "Madison!" Well, again, why not? Some of the scenes are worthy of chuckles as well as smiles. Taken to a fancy restaurant, she gets a lobster for dinner and eats the whole thing, shell and all, in an incident similar to one in Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness." To truly enjoy this film requires an imagination more deft than the usual at the suspension of disbelief. You should be really good at it.