
Allen Bauer is rescued from drowning as a young boy off Cape Cod by a young mermaid. Years later, he returns to the same location, and once again manages to fall into the sea, and is rescued once more by the mermaid (Allen isn't sure what he has seen and what he has imagined). Using maps from a sunken ship, the mermaid decides to search for Allen in New York City, sprouting legs when her tail dries. On finding Allen, they fall in love, but she has a secret, which will no long... (Full plot summary below)
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Allen Bauer is rescued from drowning as a young boy off Cape Cod by a young mermaid. Years later, he returns to the same location, and once again manages to fall into the sea, and is rescued once more by the mermaid (Allen isn't sure what he has seen and what he has imagined). Using maps from a sunken ship, the mermaid decides to search for Allen in New York City, sprouting legs when her tail dries. On finding Allen, they fall in love, but she has a secret, which will no longer be a secret if she gets her legs wet.
Leave your thoughts about Splash.
| Washington PostRita KempleyThe movie that really showed Tom Hanks' promise as a deliverer of great comedy and heart-warming pathos. |
| VarietyVariety StaffAlthough film is a bit uneven, production benefits from a tasty look, an airy tone, and a delectable, unblemished performance from Hannah. |
| Time OutChris PeachmentHoward demonstrates exactly the correct soft touch, skirting the myriad problems of taste. |
| Empire MagazineIan FreerThe movie that really showed Tom Hanks' promise as a deliverer of great comedy and heart-warming pathos. |
| Radio TimesJohn FergusonThis charming romantic comedy touched a chord with audiences around the world and propelled its stars Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah, along with director Ron Howard, to Hollywood's front rank. |
| Miami HeraldBill CosfordThis mild 1984 comedy about a mermaid (Daryl Hannah) who falls in love with a New York City yuppie (Tom Hanks) isn't at all hard to take (John Candy, in a supporting role, is hilarious and original, and Hannah has a pleasant naive charm), but its appeal is based almost entirely on regression—a thematic regression to infancy (now endemic to the American cinema) and a stylistic regression to the most lulling kind of TV blandness. No wonder it's relaxing: it's a lullaby. |
| Washington PostGary ArnoldSplash, the story of a lovelorn bachelor who falls in love with a mermaid, deserves high marks both for technical verisimilitude and artistic merit. |
| TimeRichard SchickelBefore Director Ron Howard and his gargle of writers (Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel and Bruce Jay Friedman) arrange a satisfactorily romantic ending for their odd couple, they also manage to satirize everything from presidential politics to daytime television. They are a jostling, busily observant, fundamentally good-natured crew, and audiences are well advised to take a plunge on Splash. |
| The New York TimesJanet MaslinSplash could have been shorter, but it probably couldn't have been much sweeter. Only purists will quibble with the blissfully happy ending, which has the lovers swimming through a shimmering underwater paradise that is supposed to be the bottom of the East River. |
| Reel Film ReviewsDavid NusairSplash is probably the ultimate fish-out-of-water film, primarily because it literally features a fish out of water. |