Drop Dead Fred - 1991
Rating - 12
Director - Ate De Jong
Written by - Carlos Davis and Anthony Fingleton
Starring - Rik Mayall, Phoebe Cates, Marsha Mason, Carrie Fisher
Run time - 103 minutes
Drop Dead Fred is a 1991 fantasy comedy based around young girl Elizabeth, who has an imaginary friend called Drop Dead Fred to escape from the overbearing, mentally abusive behavior of her mother. Though Fred is wild and is always causing trouble around the neighborhood as she is the only one who can see him. Though when she’s grown up and is having an emotional crisis, he comes back to cause more chaos while supposedly trying to sort out her life.
The film revolves around Elizabeth “Lizzie” Cronin (Cates), a court typist who in one afternoon, loses her job, her car, and her husband. So she is forced to stay with her overpowering mother (Mason) who has never taken the time to care about how Lizzie feels. As she is in bed at night in her old bedroom, she hears a jack-in-the-box going off, out of which spurts her former imaginary friend Drop Dead Fred (Mayall), an eccentric, childish and rebellious figure who is always practically uncontainable. He agrees to help her sort her life out, as the main objective for Lizzie is to get back with her cheating husband Charlie (Tim Matheson) even though he is having an affair with a woman called Annabella (Bridget Fonda). Throughout the film, Lizzie slowly gains more confidence and when back together with Charlie, leaves him after Fred spotted him on the phone to Annabella, though she doesn't want to split from him as she's scared of being alone. The ending of this film is quite confusing where Fred and Lizzie go to some kind of dream sequence where she confronts all her fears, her husband, her mother, and at the end, her younger self. This leads to one of the most meaningful scenes of the film between Mayall and Cates where
Lizzie finally lets go of Fred and becomes a full person again.
This movie's other cast includes child actor Ashley Peldon as the younger Elizabeth and the late Carrie Fisher as Elizabeth’s best friend Janie.
This film though is rather confusing, it doesn't really have a direct audience, as there are elements for children, teens, and adults. The film can basically be perceived as two films in one which don't really fit together. On one hand, there's a film full of manic comedy, slapstick and random absurdity and on the other, somewhat a psychological thriller, as when you think about it, all of Fred’s actions are actually done by Elizabeth, which in real life, would be considered mentally insane.
This film, while not being a box office flop as it made back way more than its $6 million budget at a healthy total of $17 million, was slaughtered by critics who mainly just stated what I said about the plot difficulties above. But one major problem American critics had with this movie, but to some viewers was the best part, was the lead performance by actor/comedian Rik Mayall as his classic brand of manic, anarchic comedy was not well known to American audiences and this is probably why he never really did another big Hollywood movie again. He then stuck to starring in TV comedy and theatre in the UK as the same year of this movie's release, he and his frequent comedy partner Ade Edmondson started the fantastic, classic comedy series Bottom.
I discovered this movie about a year ago after I became a big Rik Mayall fan from getting a box set of the superb comedy The Young Ones for my 13th birthday and since discovered many great hidden treasures from his repertoire. This film, while not being the best or most notable piece in his career, still has some meaning and heart to it under the layers of slapstick and unevenness in this forgotten cult classic.
Score - 6/10
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