A Fish Called Wanda

Released in 1988, A Fish Called Wanda is the English-American comedy film of a jewelry heist in London.
Wanda Gershwitz (Jamie Lee Curtis) is an American thief who is working with her English lover George Thomason (Tom Georgeson) to rob £13 million ($20 million) in jewels. Assisting them are Wanda’s secret lover and pretend brother, Otto West (Kevin Kline), and George’s friend Ken Pile (Michael Palin). The four plan to rob the jeweler, wait a few days, and then leave England for the carribean.
The robbery is a success and the four involved hide the jewels and plan to meet at the airport in a week. Wanda and Otto, however, had planned to turn George in and so alert the police. George is arrested for the robbery but when the two return to where they believe the jewels are hidden, they find that George has moved them.
In an attempt to discover where the jewels are, Wanda beings to seduce George’s barrister, Archie Leach (John Cleese). She attempts to use him to garner information on George’s trial as Archie is the first person whom George would divulge the location of the jewels.
As the story develops, Archie begins to fall in love with Wanda while she continues to work towards her own end. However, Otto discovers the location of the jewels before his ‘sister’ does. So rather than testifying for George to get him off, Wanda provides evidence that he was the sole person involved in the robbery.
Genuinely funny writing and a well-written plot hold the film together. The portrayal of the characters is also brilliant. Kline’s outrageous performance as Otto is easily one of the funniest I’ve seen (I don’t know whether he actually ate live fish, but its completely convincing).
The comical mixture of the film combines stupidity with romance and creates an interesting blend of scenes that are always funny and never dull. It’s difficult to find a scene void of humor in some shape or form.