YMMV / The Fisher King

• Diagnosed by the Audience: Lydia is a walking collection of neuroses, social phobias, obsessive habits, strange tics, and extreme physical clumsiness when we first meet her.
• Genius Bonus: Throughout the film, Lydia is shown wearing beige or neutral-colored dresses, her bright strawberry blonde hair hidden under a beret, to emphasise how mousy, drab, and passionless her life is. Passionate, sexual Anne, on the other hand, likes bright red lipstick, nails, and clothing, and her apartment is decorated in lots of red. In the last scene in which we see Lydia, however, she's still wearing a rather drab sage-colored dress...but it has a pattern of bright red strawberries, and she's ditched the beret to symbolize that love and passion have come into her life.
  • The Red Knight can even be said to represent Parry's passion for his late wife, now twisted and bent on destroying his life with guilt to prevent him from ever loving again.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In 1991—eight years before Columbine—a mass shooting at a public venue was a shocking twist meant to take the viewer off-guard. As the film ages, it becomes...less so.
  • What's more, like Edwin, the Columbine perpetrators wore trenchcoats.
• Moment of Awesome: Parry fighting off the sadistic teens is both hilarious and awesome.
  Parry: Oh look, it's showtime! You know boys, there's three things in this world that you need: Respect for all kinds of life, a nice bowel movement on a regular basis, and a navy blazer. Oh, and one more thing! Never take your eye off the ball! {Whack!}
  • The Grand Central Station scene. It's such a magical moment, even if it is in Parry's head, and it's coupled with Awesome Music.
• Jerkass Woobie: Jack. Sure, he's a crass and self-absorbed jerk, but he's still pitiable when he hits rock bottom and comes close to committing suicide, and it's sad to watch a man go through life so racked with guilt over how what he thought was a harmless, off the cuff remark led to tragedy.
• Karmic Overkill: Jack is an obnoxious egotist with utter disregard for other people, and most viewers probably hoped something would happen to him that would teach him a lesson. However, having his life utterly ruined, to the point that he was reduced to an impoverished, suicidal alcoholic seems like excessive punishment for making thoughtless, crass remarks.
• Moral Event Horizon: The two teen thugs that try to light Jack on fire just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time They later beat the hell out of Parry for the same reason and put him in the hospital.
  • Meaningful Background Event: Looking closely as a drunken Jack stumbles past a newspaper box on his way to commit suicide, you can see that one of the papers has a headline to the effect of "Fifth Homeless Person Found Burned To Death." This isn't some random event; the thugs are established murderers.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Red Knight. The fact it's a hallucination does nothing to take away from how terrifying it is. The film does a good job of showing just how terrifying the thing is through Parry's eyes. Especially at the end when it chases Parry through the city overlapped with Parry's memories of his wife being murdered right in front of him.
  • His flashbacks to his wife's murder are also horrifying. Particularly the fact that when she was shot her blood and brains splattered in his face. Is it any wonder the poor guy went insane after that?
  • Him screaming "Please, let me have this" just makes it worse.
  • The aforementioned teenagers, who try to burn Jack to death, then later attack Perry right after the Red Knight chases him.
• One-Scene Wonder: Jeter's big scene steals the entire film.
• Retroactive Recognition: David Hyde Pierce has a minor role as Jack's assistant.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: At first, the film looks like the type of Robin Williams comedy that might be targeted at families. But it has outbursts of profanity, some Family-Unfriendly Violence, and subplots involving suicide and a mad gunman.
• The Woobie: Parry and the homeless transvestite. Both lost their livelihoods and their sanity as a result of personal tragedies (Parry's wife was murdered by a deranged man, the transvestite's best friends all died of AIDS).

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