A Fish in the Bathtub (1998)

Well, its Monday, that can only mean one thing…another installment of Mubi Monday! This week we take a look at an independent comedy from the late ’90s with…A Fish in the Bathtub (1998).

Title: A Fish in the Bathtub

Director: Joan Micklin Silver

Released: April 23, 1998 (USA Film Festival)

Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes

Available to stream on: Tubi, Kanopy, and of course on Mubi (here is a month of Mubi on me!)

Sam (Jerry Stiller) and Molly (Anne Meara) have been married for forty years. To the surprise of no one, over the course of those forty years there’s been a healthy amount of bickering and arguing like an old married couple. Their children, Joel (Mark Ruffalo) and Ruthie (Jane Adams), are accustomed to seeing and/or hearing them bicker and trade jabs with each other.

However, one day Sam decides to come home with a giant carp. No, he didn’t bring it home to cook it up for dinner. He bought it for himself and decides to keep it in the guest bathtub. Molly, despite her best efforts, is unable to get Sam to return the fish, cook the fish, or even simply just to get rid of it. Turns out that this act by Sam is the straw that broke the camel’s back. Molly is fed up and through with Sam and his shenanigans. She packs up and leaves Sam, choosing to temporarily move in with Joel.

If you’ve been with someone for forty years, there’s bound to be a level of stubbornness on both sides. Sam refuses to call Molly to try and smooth things over because he is convinced that she will come back, all he has to do is wait it out. Meanwhile, Molly refuses to come home and digs her heels in, after forty years she has had enough.

The marital issues are between Sam and Molly, although they aren’t the only ones impacted by this lover’s quarrel. Joel and his wife are now having to learn to adapt to Molly living with them. While yes, they’re happy to help, Molly has a tendency to overstep and do things the way she believes they should be done. This, in addition to a flirtatious new client for Joel, begins to put a strain on his own marriage. Meanwhile, Ruthie is trying her best to get her father to see the error of his ways, to no avail.

Will distance make the heart grow fonder?

Or after forty years, is it time for new beginnings and a new lease on life?

I am always willing to watch something with Jerry Stiller in it. Regardless of the role, he always finds a way to deliver on a comedic level. (Bonus points here for having him and his wife play a couple on-screen.) However, sometimes even Jerry Stiller isn’t enough to salvage a film.

Now that’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy A Fish in the Bathtub (1998). Stiller delivers comedically and there’s a surprisingly impressive supporting cast. In addition, if you’re not in the mood for anything too heavy, this is a perfect light watch for you.

That being said, not only is it a light watch, but it is also a little light in terms of substance as well. In the final act, the lack of substance starts to make you feel every one of those ninety-six minutes. There are also instances where it feels as if they held back on the comedy, despite the cast they had. If you’ve seen any variation of a “battle of the sexes” type rom-com drama, you’ll know exactly what to expect as it suffers from falling into “paint-by-numbers” territory as it wears on.

Am I saying to avoid watching A Fish in the Bathtub (1998)?

Absolutely not.

Rather, go in with tempered expectations and form your own opinion.

Well, those are my thoughts. But what are yours?

If you’ve seen A Fish in the Bathtub (1998), leave a comment below or reach out on social media and tell me what you thought of it!

As always, you can follow me over on Letterboxd to keep up with everything else I’ve been watching.