How can anyone NOT like this film?!?!

To give you an idea how I feel about Splash, to date, it is the only movie that I saw 3 times in the theatre during its original release (I saw What's Up Doc 3 times also, but the third time was during a rerelease 2 years later). And I'm not a romcom kinda person at all, but that movie just clicked with me (it helped that it was set in my hometown of NYC, at that time, it had been 3 years since I last had been in NY (and it would be another 3 before I finally went back for a visit), so that was an attraction as well. It was the first time I had seen Daryl Hannah in a film (I had heard about Summer Lovers, but I did not see it, though I subsequently saw it on video), and I found her adorable And Tom Hanks is always great in anything he does (I had seen a couple episodes of Bosom Buddies by then), IMO, that movie kinda broke him out as a major film star. And John Candy was hilarious. Great film!

A movie is a funny thing. Some people will love a movie no matter what, you could give them every reason in the book and still they will protest that what they saw was golden and there is nothing you can do or say that will change it. And if you make certain comparisons others might private message you wishing you should die slowly of cancer. That is just the way some people are. And when the tides turn and you are left to defend the fort you are sure going to find a number of what you think are unfair attacks, but you should be full of good cheer because after all when all is said and done it is only a movie. Simply put it is the story and the performances. All people are not going to see it the same way. I see it time and again that for some people they will see any film if it has their favorite actor in it. No matter how horrendous the critiques trash the film they are going to see it and afterwards they are going to say it wasn’t that bad. And vice versa the opposite situation is true. Some times you can do no wrong and some times you can do no right.

How can anyone NOT like this film?!?!

Well, for starters, people who belong in one or more of the three categories: cynics, people who like to question the logic in (fantasy) movies, and (YES!) even feminists


~Cynics: They may dismiss the film as being too fluffy, too silly, or too corny (BY TODAY'S STANDARDS!).

~People who like to question the logic in (fantasy) movies: Because Splash is obviously a fantasy film, these type of people might feel inclined to say that the movie contains "more plot holes than a slice of Swiss cheese". Some plot holes include:

-The water fountain fitting through the NARROW door
-Madison learning English in eight hours simply by watching TV
-Madison recognizing the ENGLISH words "New York" on Allen’s driver license, EVEN THOUGH AT THAT TIME SHE DIDN’T KNOW ANY ENGLISH




~Feminists: To quote BlimeyCharley from a previous post, "some women find the idea of mermaids to be a bit male chauvinist, stemming from the fact that they are quite obviously meant to be sex symbols, always portrayed (as in this movie) as beautiful and nude." Some feminists might dismiss the film as being "another classic male fantasy," as evidenced by the mute, gorgeous Madison hungrily having sex with Allen both in the elevator and in Allen's bedroom; also, they might be offended that the female protagonist is portrayed as dumb, naïve, and childlike, as if that's what men are "supposed" to want in a woman (but to be fair, she is a MERMAID, so part of her "naiveté" and "lack of smarts" might come from her "not being on land often," since she obviously lives UNDER THE WATER; this in turn is "played for laughs," given that the film is both a LITERAL AND FIGURATIVE "fish-out-of-water story"!).

Furthermore, some feminists might find it "strange" (and of course sexist!) that Allen would have sex with a "dumb," NAMELESS woman, because he seems more interested in her beauty and sexuality (again to be fair, if the feminists had watched the prologue, they would see that Allen ACTUALLY KNEW THIS WOMAN BEFORE, but he just doesn't realize it [YET!], because the "supposed" trauma of him drowning as a child most likely "caused" him to repress any memory of seeing a MERMAID underwater [in this case, Madison!]; basically, the prologue makes it clear that Allen and Madison were meant to be together - they're SOULMATES!).

*******Anyway, PUTTING ASIDE ANY COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE FILM BEING MISOGYNISTIC, there are, HOWEVER, three things in the movie that feminists can approve of:

1. FOR ONCE, instead of the woman giving up everything to be with the guy she loves as seen in most movies (even romantic comedies!), the MAN gives up EVERYTHING (in the case of Allen, his brother Freddie, his job at the produce market, and his apartment) to be with the woman he loves; the man is willing to trade HIS way of life for hers (Allen gives up his life on land for a life under the sea with Madison!).

3. Madison rescues Allen not once, not twice, not thrice, but FOUR TIMES throughout the picture: (1) when he drowned in Cape Cod as a young boy, (2) when he drowned in Cape Cod (again!), this time as an adult, (3) when he drowned in the East River, and (4) when Madison grabs him away from the divers and swims off with him at the end of the film! (I guess it doesn’t help that ALLEN CAN’T SWIM, hence having to be FREQUENTLY rescued from drowning. As Allen would say, "Oh, why didn’t I learn how to swim? ). Besides, how many times did Allen rescue Madison in the film? ONCE, and that was when he was “smuggling” her out of the lab, with the help of his brother Freddie, and Dr. Kornbluth.

Therefore, it’s evident that Madison is no "damsel in distress."



3. Refreshingly, instead of the woman wanting love, marriage, and/or a family, as well as basing her happiness on finding the right man, like in most (if not all) romantic comedies, the man wants love, marriage, and/or a family (on the bar stool, Allen says to himself, "I just want to meet a woman. I want to meet a woman, and I want to fall in love, and I want to get married, and I want to have a kid, and I want to see him play a tooth in the school play."), and in addition, he feels that having a woman in his life will finally give him the happiness he so longed for (after Allen is shocked to find out that the woman of his dreams is really a mermaid, Freddie reminds Allen how GRATEFUL Allen should be that he found a woman who, FOR ONCE, makes him HAPPY because that kind of happiness is RARE for some people - even for the HEDONISTIC Freddie [IRONICALLY!]: "Look do you realize how happy you were with her?...Some people will never be THAT happy! I’LL never be that happy!"). *******

I agree. Been a favorite since I'm three years old. It's such a unique and beautiful film.

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