Review: Splash

Tom Hanks has a boating accident and is saved by a mermaid (Daryl Hannah). She ventures on to dry land and tracks him down. They fall in love, with Hanks none the wiser to her true identity. An accident prone, obsessed scientist (Eugene Levy) threatens to ruin it all. John Candy plays Hanks’ ne’er-do-well brother.

 

Everybody loves “Splash”. My name’s not ‘Everybody’, though. I’ve tried to like this 1984 literal fish-out-of-water film from director Ron Howard (“Night Shift”, “Parenthood”, “Apollo 13”) at least twice now and with the same result. Mild disinterest. There’s some humour here and there and Hanks was ever-so slowly starting to find his Jimmy Stewart ‘nice guy’ leading man groove here, but there’s nothing consistently funny or memorable. Part of the problem is that I find fish-out-of-water comedy gets played out very quickly, with even the film’s best joke still being a rather awful guilty laugh (Hannah telling Hanks her name).

 

The biggest part of the problem is that I’ve never thought Daryl Hannah was an even decent actress. She certainly isn’t miscast, and if you’re a fan of her posterior you’ll be in heaven here. However while she’s sweet as usual, she’s acting funny and otherworldly instead of being funny and being convincingly otherworldly. There’s a difference, and it’s a difference between someone who can act and someone who cannot. It’s also a difference between the humour working and not working. So obviously because this is a big part of the film, the film just wasn’t going to work well for me. The humour didn’t work for me nor did Hannah’s performance. The character is a dud anyway, much like the similar “Date With an Angel”, the mermaid character here is written in a single dimension. She’s a male romantic fantasy, that’s all. So it’s hard to invest in a relationship when only one half is a fully flesh-and-blood 3D character. The character’s understanding of human society is also wildly inconsistent in dictation of the script’s supposedly humorous demands. That always frustrates me.

 

I also don’t think Howard uses John Candy to maximum effect. He’s better in sweet, likeable roles, and here he ends up largely underused playing a ne’er do well. He’s not miscast per se, just not memorable or funny. On the plus side the underwater scenes are very pretty and lovely, and Hanks is perfectly fine in the lead. He can’t save this clichéd thing on his own, though. Meanwhile, every cutaway to Eugene Levy’s idiot scientist character is a dud.  

 

***** SPOILER ALERT ***** The central idea of a man reunited with a figure from childhood and falling in love with them as an adult, is a lovely concept. The execution here is largely boring and inconsistent. ***** END SPOILER ***** A likeable Tom Hanks film surrounded by a mediocre film with few laughs, thin characters, and too many clichés. If you like fish-out-of-water films, you’ll likely enjoy this a heck of a lot more than I did. Based on a Bruce Jay Friedman (“Stir Crazy”, “The Lonely Guy”) story, the screenplay is by Friedman, and Howard regulars Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz (“Night Shift”, “Spies Like Us”, “Parenthood”).

 

Rating: C-