Drop Dead Fred

I'm still on a Carrie Fisher kick, but here's the thing about Ms. Fisher. Other than the Star Wars trilogy, Under The Rainbow, and some direct to video titles, Fisher usually played in supporting roles. Mostly those of a wife or a wisecracking best friend. She would still be stealing the scenes and holding her own with her costars. Today, I thought I would look back at one of those wisecracking, best friend roles in 1990's Drop Dead Fred.

Elizabeth, Phoebe Cates, is having a horrible day. Her cheating husband, Tim Matheson, has just left her. She loses her job. And she has to move back in with her overbearing mother, Marsha Mason. All of this bad luck triggers her imaginary friend from childhood, Drop Dead Fred, Rik Mayall, to re enter her life. And all hell breaks loose.

When I first saw this terrific film, I saw it as another Beetlejuice style comedy. But now that I am older, I see it as a movie about a woman looking for an escape from her mentally abusive relationships. Don't get me wrong, this is a fun flick, but there's a lot of dark things happening in it.

Cates is adorable, bringing the right amount of cute and vulnerability to the role. And Mayall, best known to American audiences from the BBC series The Young Ones, is hysterical. He, like Fisher, left this planet way too early. It's a shame that Mayall didn't have more of a following here in the states. Fisher is terrific as always as Cate's best friend. And both Mason and Matheson play their love to hate characters to the hilt. Ron Eldard also pops up in a likable performance as a childhood friend of Cates.

Sadly, the dvd for Drop Dead Fred is out of print. Hopefully this will make it's way to blu ray because it is a terrific film.