A wonderfully comic and emotionally real film, with superb performances by Faye Dunaway, Johnny Depp and Vince Gallo and Jerry Lewis. Kustirica's invention and magic realism make this film a visual and imaginative pleasure.
The film opens with a dream about an Alaskan Inuit lost in a snowstorm and closes with Depp and Lewis, dressed in furs, in Alaska, speaking to each other in Inuit - in between, the film takes place in New York and Arizona with symbolic linking of the real and dream places via a flying halibut, the moon and an Alaskan husky dog.
The story itself, of a young man (Depp) who is dragged back to his hometown for his uncle's wedding (Lewis)to a woman half his age, is unexpectedly tender. His uncle is disappointed that he will not buy into his American Dream by refusing to follow his footsteps as a Cadillac salesman and even more disappointed when Depp falls in love with an older woman(Dunaway) to the jealous annoyance of her step-daughter (Lilli Taylor). It is a film about a young man finding out who he is and how to become that person: a film about growing older and about death.
Don't be put off by some of the reviews - it is not a Hollywood film, but for anyone who admires Kustarica's films or intelligent, imaginative films in general, it is a real treat. Bonus material includes an extended interview with the producer and Johnny Depp made 10 years after the film was released in 1993 and a 12 minute deleted scene.
