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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Fisher King, The
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 9 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 8 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Romance
Written by: Richard LaGravenese
Directed by: Terry Gilliam
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 20, 1991
DVD: August 28, 2001
Running Time: 137 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R
Starring Jeff Bridges, Robin Williams, Adam Bryant, Mercedes Ruehl, Paul J. Lombardi, David Hyde Pierce, Amanda Plummer, and Ted Ross
Terry Gilliam's romantic parable The Fisher King delves deep into the nature of love and loss, of guilt and redemption, of character and tragedy. (Tri-Star)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: 12 Monkeys Brazil Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Jabberwocky Monty Python and the Holy Grail Monty Python's Life of Brian The Brothers Grimm Tideland
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Washington Post Desson Thomson
A modern epic that fuses myth with hard-edged reality, it's a one-of-a-kind, thoroughly engaging experience.
Read Full Review >Variety Staff (Not credited)
The Fisher King has two actors at the top of their form, and a compelling, well-directed and well-produced story.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
What emerges, in the end, are a clever premise that has been allowed to go awry and several performances that are lively and unpredictable enough to transcend the confusion. Mr. Bridges, always a fine intuitive actor, has never displayed a greater range.
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
If you treasure Gilliam at his best and take his ideas seriously, you'll probably be infuriated as well as delighted.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Restores our belief in the power of movies to transform reality, even temporarily. So what if it's not perfect? It's magic.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
A fanciful spiral of mythology, madness, cynicism and salvation.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Staff (not credited)
The script never resolves the different levels on which it tries to operate, and also throws in too many loose ends which never get cleared up.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A disorganized, rambling and eccentric movie that contains some moments of truth, some moments of humor, and many moments of digression.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Michael Sragow
The movie is a peculiarly irritating failure -- a leaden piece of uplift.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jay H gave it a7:
An unusual story, very well handled. It does go off the deep end a little to much, but it still works. The acting is excellent - Robin Williams, Amanda Plummer and Jeff Bridges are great, Mercedes Ruehl is amazing.
Paul E gave it a10:
The Fisher King is actually one of the most beautiful and effecting movies I've ever seen. The acting is great (most notably Jeff Bridges did a fantastic work!), the story is interesting and sows the seeds for a the expressive directing and visualisation of director Terry Gilliam.
Nicole gave it a10:
I thought it was hilarious. So outspoken and humorous. Williams kick's ass
M. S. gave it a 3:
About the most over the top and pretentious a movie could be.
Dan C. gave it an 8:
I liked this movie. The performances are great. I like it when they mix what's going on in Parry's mind with the real world. The movie has its moments.
Pat C. gave it a 6:
Started out well, but I was pretty disoriented by the end. Gilliam has his apologists, but there's barely enough time in life to watch the very best movies.
Yoon Min C. gave it a 7:
Gilliam is a misconceived artistic brew. An iconoclast of the Monty Python mold, he's also a momumentalist, a gigantist with zero understanding of proportion, nor even about the appropriate chemistry among different genres or art. He throws everything into a huge pot--highbrow literature, lowbrow cartoons, pulp, propaganda, avante garde films--and let's it boil over. Look what he has done to 1984 with Brazil or to Le Jette with 12 Monkeys. Thankfully, Fisher King has, at the very least, two central characters we care about, and the emotional climax is so genuinely poignant that we don't care about Gilliam's litterstrewn wonderland. Funny, but why this film works is a paradox. Yes, Gilliam's visual mess is as annoying and obnoxious as ever but we need it in order to escape into the quiet zone of love and friendship so beautifully emoted by Williams and Bridges.
