John Cleese once again proves that he is the master of words when it comes to awkward situations in this hilarious spoof of corny heist films. It's full of vulgarians, dirty dealings, double-crosses, and a not so fatale femme.
Sexy American jewel thief Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her dimwitted lover Otto (Kevin Kline) are in London out to steal two precious diamonds worth $20 million. They team up with the stuttering, animal loving Ken (Michael Palin) and Georges Thomason (Tom Georgeson--ha), who thinks he's dating Wanda, in order to carry out the heist. Everything goes as planned until Wanda and Otto decide that 25% each isn't enough and that the whole lot sounds a lot better.
They place the blame on Georges, unbeknownst to him, and when he is arrested they return to the rendezvous point only to find that the jewels have been moved. Stuck in London with the threat of Georges revealing them as accomplices and returning the diamonds to reduce his jail time, Wanda uses her feminine wiles to get close to his lawyer, Archie (Cleese). Otto's jealousy threatens to ruin the operation as the closer Wanda gets to Archie the further the manic, gun-toting Otto pushes him away.
The only sensible person in this whole operation is Wanda and Curtis nails her perfectly. She's sharp, ruthless and very pretty, easily navigating from headstrong leader to temptress with nobody else's misfortune in her mind. If it were up to her the whole lot of them would be dead and she would take the money for herself. It certainly seems odd to me that she kept Otto around as long as she did considering he was simply the weapons man and not much good after the robbery was finished, but he can speak Italian and we all know how much diamond thieves love hearing a bit of romance.
There are all sorts of sight-gags and running jokes that keep the film bouncing along to an inevitable climax, but the end's predictability does not make the ride any less fun. Actually, this is rather a laugh-out-loud type film and I did laugh a lot in spite of myself. Kline is particularly hilarious. He is dumber than a sack of hammers and twice as dangerous, so don't call him stupid. However, he reads Nietzsche--incorrectly--and practices Buddhism--incorrectly. He is also perfectly convinced that the United States won the Vietnam War. Watch him during the classic fish-eating scene. Only someone as crazy as Kline would offer to eat live fish. They weren't, but it's awesome knowing that they could have been. His was a fully deserved Oscar win.
Cleese is also very good as the lawyer, unappreciated by his wife and daughter and who seems simply to fade into the background. He had funny moments, but I found his character to be mildly depressing. His face when he believes Wanda actually takes an interest in him is really quite touching.
And Ken. Poor, poor Ken. He can't get out a sentence and everything that he tries to protect ends up dying. His is the funniest running joke of them all, and though he has the fewest lines his flapping mouth and those three, yappy little dogs completely make up for it.
Nothing in this film is very close to being realistic though it does come dangerously close. All this aims to do is take the piss out of all of the terrible heist gone awry films that came out the decade before, but thankfully the script is penned so well and the characters acted with such dedication that it is both hilarious and very smart. Cleese never seems to run out of ideas and this appears to be a very good summation of all that's in his head. It is not to outrageous as something like "Brazil", but its implausibility is almost plausible and thank God for that.
3.5/4
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