SPLASH (1984) *** It could have been one of the great romance flicks of all time, if not for the unavoidable sadness of Daryl Hannah ending up with Tom Hanks. Hers was among the brightest futures ever in that city of spellbindingly intense illusions of incandescence. She looked perfect, her voice was too gentle to describe, her casual intensity filled a vacuum in the Zeitgeist, she threatened to define California consciousness as the credo of the 21st century. Not to say that she didn't deliver on any of it, some she did, but he's the one who ended up with all the awards (and sadly without getting better, and botching dumber material). Now if she'd ended up with John Candy, that would have been different! One of the all-time great character supporting roles ("I'm really liberal!") as the big brother who drinks late hours for the company and whose crowning achievement is the publication of his letter to Penthouse. Sure it's an unaccredited rework of "The Little Mermaid" (with better lines all around to tell the truth), but throughout there's a sense that Ron Howard and company are saying more, that they're appealing to a sense of real values during the darkest days of America's collective Reaganist traditional values insanity: love is more important than money, the government and particularly the military (see the army jeep with "666" as its identification number) are bad, scientists don't know what the hell they're doing (except for the brilliant/nutty Eugene Levy types who turn on the establishment), there are better things to do than have dinner with the President, get it while you can, a great shot's a great shot from any angle and you can get there early or linger on it too long and it's still a great shot.
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