Depressed ex broadcaster Jeff Bridges takes an interest in homeless oddball Robin Williams, whose life he has inadvertently ruined. Beautifully written film, by Richard LaGravenese, isn't too Gilliamy, and in fact he displays a nice line in restraint when he films these long takes between great actors. I sometimes didn't know whether to burst out laughing or crying. It's certainly weird and wonderful, or as Q described it, 'Completely barking, but brilliant and beautiful'.
Mercedes Ruehl won Oscar ("You come, you go - all I do is cook like a jerk.") With Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction). And Michael Jeter, memorable as the homeless singer (when Bridges later ignores him, it's heartbreaking). He really was HIV positive (though that didn't kill him) so the scene where he talks about all his dead friends may actually be from life.
Photographed by Roger Pratt, edited by Lesley Walker.
The Grand Central Station sequence has to be seen to be believed. Features many unusual sights of Manhattan.
Ethel Merman reference could be after William's own quip in Good Morning Vietnam that "Ethel Merman used to block Russian radar".
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