The Fisherman and His Wife – why women never get enough | Review

Brothers Grimm-inspired tale lacks edge.

The notion of wealth and money not bringing happiness is heavily highlighted in a German film that will make pet lovers think twice about what animal might be deemed a good family investment. High in moral fiber, The Fisherman and His Wife is perhaps best suited for people looking to find Disney fair for adults. Not surprisingly, Doris Dorrie’s contemporary adaptation loosely based on the fairy-tale created world of the Grimm brothers – which would perhaps explain why the sugar coating is so thick in this tedious and off-putting romantic comedy.

All originality in this film beings and ends with a pair of rare fish from the goldfish family in the role of speaking parts, the content of there voice-over dialogue emulates that of a couple who gone past the romance stage and are into the bickering over money, family and lifestyle stage of their relationship. With an uninspired screenplay, the film simply goes through the motions – showing how the male figure of the film is comparable to a seahorse because of his fathering abilities and making out the wife as an obnoxious, exaggeratedly ambitious antagonist with the whole “making it” theory stamped on her personality.

It’s too bad that Dorrie isn’t further inspired by fairy-tale elements that made the Grimms so popular – visually the film is about as interesting to look at as an empty dirty fish aquarium, and it’s too bad that the entire tone of the picture couldn’t use a bit more Josef Fares-like humor or Lukas Moodysson family drama. The problematic conception of the female protagonist – Alexandra Maria Lara plays her role so seriously, perhaps bringing too much from The Downfall factored into it – the effect that it has on the comedic portions of the film is debilitating to the point that within a semi-comedy it is easily rejected each time she is inserted in a given sequence – that counts almost for the entire film.

In Japanese the word Koi means both fish and love. In The Fisherman and His Wife it means boring. Set in two-square meters of Japan with the balance of the film in parts of Germany, this is filled with clichés and cartoonish characters in serious roles. A modification of the film’s pitch could have drastically altered the translation of the story idea – in the end we question who was this film intended for? – and the answer is no one that I know.

New Montreal Film Festival 2005.

Rating 0.5 stars