FavorWatchFish

The Favor, the Watch and the Very Big Fish

     The next movie I shall examine is called The Favor, the Watch and the Very Big Fish (1992). Like Jesus of Montreal (1989), this movie is a Christ figure film, which also involves an actor (or in this case a model) who is hired to play the part of Jesus and then in turn becomes a Christ figure. The difference between these two movies is that whereas in Jesus of Montreal (1989) the actor was an implicit Christ figure, which means that the audience is the ones who draw the parallels between the character and Jesus. In the case of The Favor, the Watch and the Very Big Fish (1992) we have an explicit Christ figure. With an explicit Christ figure, it is the character himself or herself who comes to the conclusion that he or she is actually Jesus (Tatum 210).
     A British and French movie team made this film. The basic plot is that a man named Louis Aubbinard, played by Bob Hoskins, is a photographer who specializes in devotional pictures. He is looking for a Jesus. Louis finds a mysterious stranger, played by Jeff Goldblum, to take the part. The man he hires, unbeknownst to Louis, is a psycho pianist who has recently been released from prison. The pianist has an infatuation with a woman named Sybil whom he feels betrayed him. During the course of the film he comes to the eventual conclusion that he is not only playing Jesus, he actually is Jesus. The perspective the audience is given for the film is external. We know everything that is going on during the film whereas the characters in the film only eventually come to the understanding that we, as the viewers, have all along.
     When we examine the treatment of Jesus in the film it is quite clear that the picture we get is intimately tied with who the pianist understands him to be. The first thing of note is that the pianist never reveals who he really is. At points when he is asked his name he gives the name of a famous composer in history. There is a sense that he feels the world has not recognized him for the "great man" that he is. So when he is hired to play Jesus there is some recognition, but not exactly what he wanted. The pianist understands Jesus to be a divine miracle worker. The point in the film where he first questions his own divinity is when he "cures" a blind boy. At this point, he has been portraying Jesus in the photos for some time and some elderly women recognize him as Jesus and insist that he cure the boy. They swarm around him, and the pianist finally prays over the boy to get them to leave him alone. While he is praying, the boy is hit with a golf ball, which restores his sight. Neither the pianist nor the ladies realize it was the ball so the miracle is attributed to Jesus.
     In a humorous scene a little later the pianist is talking with a woman on the subway that also recognizes him as Jesus, but being a little less superstitious than the previous group of women she also realizes that he is an actor. She says to him "Those other actors who played Jesus in the films, they didn't look a thing like him? But when I look at you I think, 'There's a man who could really save the world.' Why not give it a try?" So on the woman's prodding, the pianist decides to attempt another healing. He comes across a man whittling, who claims to be blind. It is clear that this man is a con artist just trying to take peoples' money. The pianist thinks he really is blind and takes the knife from him and tries to heal him. The "blind man" now fears for his life because a psycho with a sharp knife is standing over him. He takes off his glasses and claims that he is cured. From this point on in the film the pianist is convinced that he is Jesus.
     Louis' boss recognizes what is going on and tells Louis to fire the pianist because he is crazy and "thinks he's God." There is one more portion of the film that is worth discussing. The pianist has been searching for Sybil and swears he will kill her if he ever finds her. He does eventually find her, and has a knife drawn and is ready to kill her; however, he is unable to go through with it. He comes across her in a church asking for God's forgiveness. Being the psychopath he is, he wants nothing more than to kill her, but as Jesus he is obligated to forgive her and tells her she is forgiven and "to sin no more."
     In The Favor, the Watch and the Very Big Fish (1992), we have Jesus being portrayed by an insane person. This is an interesting move in itself, but it is the only way in which one can make an explicit Christ figure film for obvious reasons. But, beyond this, we have a very traditional view of Jesus. He is a divine miracle worker who can forgive even the most horrid of all sins. There is nothing really groundbreaking in this film other than a clearly amusing alternative to bringing Jesus into film.