''Dream with the Fishes'' is a 1997 American independent film directed by

Finn Taylor Finn Taylor (born July 4, 1958) is an American film writer and director. Background Taylor was born in Oakland, California, and lived in Norway for a few years in his childhood. He attended the University of Montana and later San Francisco State ...

. The film is Taylor's directorial debut and starred

David Arquette David Arquette (born September 8, 1971) is an American actor and former professional wrestler. He is best known for his role as Dewey Riley in the slasher film franchise ''Scream'', for which he won a Teen Choice Award and two Blockbuster Enter ...

, Kathryn Erbe and Brad Hunt. It was released on June 20, 1997, by

Sony Pictures Classics Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom. It distributes, produc ...

Plot

The film follows Terry, a suicidal voyeur who doesn't seem to be able to kill himself. While preparing for jumping off a bridge, he meets Nick who ends up saving his life. Terry discovers that Nick is terminally ill and doesn't have much time left. Scared by the lack of time, Nick offers Terry a deal he can't refuse: Terry will become the beneficiary of Nick's life insurance or, since money doesn't matter to Terry, Nick promises to kill him before he dies. All Nick asks is Terry's help to realize a few fantasies before dying. Taylor has claimed that the film is loosely autobiographical. Taylor himself once spent six years traveling around the country with a friend. In one interview, Taylor claimed: "When I was 19, I contemplated suicide and attempted to hold up a drug store."

Cast

as Terry * Kathryn Erbe as Liz * Brad Hunt as Nick *

Cathy Moriarty Cathy Moriarty (born November 29, 1960) is an American actress and singer whose career spans over 40 years. For her work in Martin Scorsese's 1980 film ''Raging Bull'', she received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress ...

as Aunt Elise * J. E. Freeman as Joe * Patrick McGaw as Don * Timi Prulhiere as Michelle *

Anita Barone Anita Louise Barone (born September 25, 1964) is an American actress. She is known for co-starring roles in sitcoms '' The Jeff Foxworthy Show'', ''Daddio'', ''Shake It Up'', '' The War at Home'' and ''Friends''. Life and career Barone was born ...

as Mary *

Allyce Beasley Allyce Beasley ( Tannenberg) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as rhyming, love-struck receptionist Agnes DiPesto in the television series ''Moonlighting''. From 2001 to 2007, she was the announcer on Playhouse Disney, a mor ...

as Sophia

Production

It was shot in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and in other locations around

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

Release and reception

''Dream with the Fishes'' debuted at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

, and would go on to earn $460,000 in limited release in June 1997. In Australia, it also received a limited theatrical release in October 1997. The film received a relatively positive reception from critics.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

said that the film "shows some of the signs of unchained ambition." The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' said that "of all the towering blockbusters this summer, ''Dream With The Fishes'' has more heart than the lot of them." In a 2007 interview, actor David Arquette stated that ''Dream with the Fishes'' was "close to my heart" and "a great independent film."

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the film a rating of 61% from 44 reviews.

Notes

External links

* * 1997 films American independent films Films about drugs Films set in San Francisco 1997 comedy-drama films American comedy-drama films 1997 independent films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films Sony Pictures Classics films English-language comedy-drama films {{1990s-comedy-drama-film-stub