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Reviews
Dream with the Fishes (1997)
This film is quirky although the acting is a little overboard
The rollercoaster ride taken by characters Nick (Brad Hunt) and Terry (David Arquette) during Dream With the Fishes is fittingly analogous to this inconsistent yet quirky film.
Both main characters demonstrate flashes of brilliant acting as they plunge into the depths of a suicidal binge fueled by Terry's desire to die and Nick's desire to squeeze whatever he can out of his last few weeks of life.
These contrasts play well throughout the first half of the film. Particularly memorable are the scenes where Nick goes naked bowling with strippers and Terry practically wets himself when one of Nick's bowling partners makes a pass at him.
What makes this relationship work is the balance between the two characters. Terry's fearful hesitance is matched by Nick's unflinching charisma and willingness to abandon rational convention.
In the second half of the film, however, the catharsis's of both main characters take some hyperbolic turns.
Although Brad Hunt does well in the first half of the film at playing Terry in a way that is realistically eccentric, his acting in the second half seems to cross over the line of believable characterization.
Hunt's portrayal seems a little too calculated and lacks the complete spontaneity that makes Nick an enjoyable character in the first half of the film. His responses to Nick's change of attitude seem almost too familiar as the crazy guy who straddles the line between selfish indulger and selfless mentor.
Despite these flaws, the film maintains its duality as a funny yet though provoking window into two mens eccentric experiences as they deal with the realities of life and death.