O Favor, o Relógio e o Peixe Muito Grande

Louis Aubinar (Bob Hoskins) is a photographer specializing in pictures of religious figures. He lives in Paris with his oddball sister Elizabeth and her crazier food like grinding up a whole swordfish. He does a favor doing a voice-over job. He is shocked to be dubbing porn beside fellow voice actor Sybil (Natasha Richardson). She confides in him about a depressed pianist (Jeff Goldblum). They worked at a restaurant and a spoiled girl offered Sybil a watch if she makes the pianist act happy. Sybil flirted with the pianist which improved his playing. The restaurant gained respect and then one night, the pianist became jealous of the violinist over Sybil and attacked him. He is taken to prison and now he is being released. Meanwhile Louis is having trouble finding the right Jesus until he sees the rain-soaked pianist in his window without knowing that he's Sybil's pianist.

This is a weird movie. Dubbing porn is hilarious. The rest are strange and lovely. I really only laughed at the porno scenes. The movie is quirky but not outrageous enough to be consistently funny. The energy is a bit on the low end. It needs a faster pace and some more energetic music.

I saw this movie when it first came out and really liked it. I recall it didn't do that well, perhaps because the trailer for it was so badly done.

I decided to watch it again, and it's still very entertaining. It starts a little slow but gets nuttier and nuttier as it goes along. Jeff Goldblum is excellent as a volatile pianist and Bob Hoskins quite good as the meek protagonist. The plot is quite ingenious. The movie is quite silly and odd, and I can certainly see it wouldn't appeal to everyone, but for those who like quirky indie films, this is a great bet.

You have to enjoy dry humor to really get the benifet of the film. Bob Hoskins plays the main character Louis Aubinard who thinks he is the most unlucky person on the face of the earth. His whole life begins to change when his boss played by Michel Blanc threatens to fire him if he does not find an actor to be photographed as Jesus. After work he visits his friend Zalmen who is sick he asks Louis to do him a FAVOR. He asks him to go down to studio and pretend that he is him and do the sound affects for a film. After that he seea a fish market outside his friend's apartment building and sees a VERY BIG FISH and buys it for supper. The next morning he goes to the studio only to find out he is looping sound affects for a porno film. At the studio he works with a women by the name of Sybil played by Natasha Richardson. When going out to lunch with her she tells the him the story of her last job and a never smiling pianist who falls head over heals for her. She meets him because of a little rich girl who will give her a WATCH if she can get him to smile. And that is only the first 45 minutes of this very humorus film. It is a great film to watch on a rainy day.

This movie is certainly not everyone's cup of tea. Mine it is, big time. Rarely have I seen a movie that I liked more than this one. I wonder why others don't like it. What is it they don't see that I see? Or is there something that bothers them but not me? The pace is slow, yes, but there are a lot of details and twists to keep me easily entertained. And the pace is certainly faster than in Greenaway's movies. When I saw it the first time, I couldn't wait to see what weird happens next.

The movie is more strange that intellectual. However, I think it cannot be enjoyed by Americans who expect to enjoy a film also (only ?) if they leave their brains home. You might say there is something European in the whole thing.

Totally disagree with the four reviewers in the IMDB, obviously grossed out on too many parochial "local" style movies. It is a witty subtle story and one too rare in the style of 'Tati'.