Last week, I was reminded of The Fisher King, starring Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges and Mercedes Ruehl. I was inspired to rent the movie with my Prime Video subscription and watch it for the first time since I first saw it in theaters in 1991, and I’m really glad I did. I’ve always had fond memories of it, and not only do I still love the movie, but I have an all-new appreciation for Robin Williams' performance in it. I think it’s arguably Williams' best role of his career.
The Fisher King Is A Classic Example Of The Hero's Quest
If you don’t remember The Fisher King (or haven’t seen it), the movie is about a New York City radio shock-jock named Jack Lucas, played by Bridges, who inadvertently inspires a mass shooting and retreats from the public, ashamed and disillusioned by his actions. Williams, whose loss we all still feel, plays a man whose wife was murdered by the shooter and has lost all grip on reality in the aftermath. A seemingly random meeting brings the two together after Williams’ character, Parry, saves Jack from some would-be muggers.
From there, the story plays out with a heavy dose of magical realism, as one would expect from any movie directed by the great Terry Gilliam. Parry is a broken man, living on the streets and caught in an alternate reality of his own making to help him forget the tragic events that led to the death of his beloved wife.
He believes himself to be a knight in medieval times, trying to earn the love of a woman (Amanda Plummer) he only sees during her commute to and from a train station. To earn her love, he must retrieve the Holy Grail (a fun callback to Gilliam’s time with Monty Python) from a "castle" near Central Park in Manhattan... at least, in his own mind.
Williams Brings Every Ounce Of His Immense Talent To The Movie
Parry’s mental breakdown gives Robin Williams so much to work with. He is manically funny, as Williams was so good at being, but he also has that broken side, which Williams was a master at tapping into. Parry has to be tender at times, because as a chivalrous knight on a quest, he helps as many people as he can, including and especially Jack. The role draws on all those talents that Williams possessed, and I can’t imagine any other actor being able to pull it off nearly as well as the late Williams does in the film.
Playing the high points and the low points of a man in deep manic depression is daunting for any actor, but Williams pulls it off so well here, you almost forget the actor completely. That is, until he strips naked in Central Park and runs around the park in the buff… a very hairy buff, at that. I’m hard-pressed to think of another movie where Williams goes back and forth so quickly between comedy and tragedy. It’s a truly brilliant performance.
As a viewer, I felt everything Parry feels, the humor and the pain, so viscerally. It explains why I never revisited the movie, despite being blown away by it the first time I saw it all those decades ago. It was one of those movies that you love, but don’t think you can watch more than once. Well, now I’ve seen it twice and I’m sure glad I have.
