At eight years old,
Allan Bauer fell off a boat and came face to face with a young mermaid.
Twenty years later, Allan (Hanks) is a workaholic who is convinced
he'll never fall in love. His outlook changes,
however, when he is rescued from the sea by a mystery woman who he
is instantly smitten with. When she shows up in New York with no
conception of the English language or clothes for that matter,
Allan becomes her guide and shows her around the city. Soon Allan
finds himself wrapped up in a wave of romance.
CRITIQUE
"Splash" is a romantic
comedy that is pretty much a mix of both "The Little Mermaid" and
"Sleepless in Seattle", only it sadly never lives up to such an
enchanting idea.
The film begins promisingly enough, giving us a main character we
can definitely feel sympathy for. It also doesn't hurt that Tom
Hanks is playing him. Hanks shows just how funny and endearing he
can be in playing this down on his luck character. Daryl Hannah is
also brilliant as Madison, portraying the innocence and wonderment of someone
seeing a strange new place for the first time.
Much of the comedy in this film comes from her discoveries of
things like street lights and television, and while it's all
really cutesy stuff, it works for the most part. The film is very
sweet, but that never really translates to romantic chemistry. The
film suffers from a lack of intimacy. The two characters seem to
be walking around loving each other without the slightest reason
why, other than the script requires it. Allan says he has an
affinity for mermaids and Madison says she has come to the city to
find Allan, but these things require elaboration that the script
never provides. As a result, many of their most touching scenes
together seem to be manipulated by Lee Holdrige's musical score.
There is also a stupid subplot featuring Eugene Levy as a
scientist trying to get Madison wet so he can prove she's a
mermaid, and there is also the ending where Allan must save her
from the clutches of evil scientists. These things distract from
the romance and cause the film to conclude open-endedly.
John Candy appears in the film and usually the best
scenes are the ones featuring him. He is hilarious as Allan's
skirt chasing, free-wheeling older brother. He basically steals every scene.
Hanks and Hannah also give the film their best shot, but the the
script is too bland for them to do anything.
THE VIDEO
"Splash" is
presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen.
THE AUDIO
"Splash" is
presented in Dolby Digital 5.1
Surround Sound. A French dub track is featured, plus optional
Spanish subtitles.
THE EXTRAS
Audio commentary by
director Ron Howard, producer Brian Glazer, and writers Lowell Ganz
& Babaloo Mandel - This track is
pretty decent with some nice insights and good general
information.
The group also provide an introduction (and closing) to the track.
Making a Splash
-
"Splash" has a very appealing behind-the-scenes documentary. It
features interviews from Hanks, Hannah, Howard, Grazer, Levy, Mandel, and Ganz.
Unlike many DVD documentaries, this one is very informative and
dramatic in the way it came to be. It talks about screenplay
problems, competition from another mermaid movie starring Warren
Beatty, the fact that Disney mostly produced G-rated fare before
this, and how they went about shooting the underwater scenes,
among other things. It's all interesting stuff that any fan of
the film should definitely check out.
Auditions -
Ron Howard introduces this segment featuring auditions of both
Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah. I always love watching this
process, mostly to see what the performance was like in the
beginning stages. And the fact that it's Tom Hanks, who in my
opinion is the best actor working today, only sweetens the deal.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, "Splash" has a
very sweet core and a few good laughs, plus the cast is very good, but
the special features are more entertaining than the actual film.
