It's hard to imagine, but Dream With The Fishes, the acclaimed
low-budget, dark comedy/drama is autobiographical on the part of
the film's first-time writer/director Finn Taylor, he explains
from his northern California home. "When I was 19, I
contemplated suicide and attempted to hold up a drug store",
the director confesses, matter-of-factly.
Which means that the central character in his Dream with the
Fishes, Terry, is closer to his creator that you might think.
Terry (David Arquette) tries to muster the courage to jump off a
bridge, but his appointment with death is postponed, when a young
man named Nick (Brad Hunt) intervenes. Nick, who has only a few
weeks to live due to an unnamed fatal condition, offers to help
Terry end it all in a less painful way if Terry will help him
fulfill some of his lifelong fantasies. Among these aspirations
are a nude bowling match with hookers; dropping acid while
driving; a visit to an aquarium; naked armed robbery; and a
return home to confront old passions and demons.
"Going through that
experience kind of gave me a new perspective on life."
Like Terry's own life, Taylor isn't exactly sure why at that
particular point in his life suicide became a serious option.
"I don't know if you can pinpoint it to any one moment. But
in an attempt to sort of travel around, I was already writing. I
ended up in New Jersey waiting for a job on a ship that was not
coming in, and I was working 80 hours a week moving furniture for
this awful guy. At that point I'd been pretty straight, not
having done much in terms of drugs and alcohol, then one night I
decided to try drinking and I ended up having a full gallon of
Carlo Rossi red wine." From there, attempted suicide.
Clearly, the fact that the suicide bid failed, was somewhat
pleasing to the then teenager. "I was pretty much
instantaneously happy when I was alive. Going through that
experience kind of gave me a new perspective on life."
"I went back and
revisited many of these places where these events actually
took place."
Twenty years later, writing this script was a cathartic
experience for the debut film maker, not only in his development
of Terry, but also the dying Nick. "He was actually based on
a close friend of mine who has since died. The most cathartic
part about doing this film was when it came to the press tour for
the release of the film around the United States. I went back and
revisited many of these places where these events actually took
place, for the first time in 20 years." Knowing how personal
a film Fishes really is, it's not nearly as depressing as one
might imagine.
"I wanted a very specific tone, and didn't want this to
be a maudlin film. My experience, which also involved helping MY
friend living out HIS fantasies, was heightened senses all around
in terms of humour and a sense of adventure, all of which I
wanted to capture." In casting his film, Taylor wasn't
necessarily after an actor who bore a physical resemblance to the
young Finn, but he was fairly certain he knew why David Arquette
ended up with the pivotal role. "He is the right person. In
reality, he has his emotions on his sleeve, and is a nervous,
reclusive kind of a guy, but on the flip side he's also
completely insane, so he possessed both sides of Terry's
arc."
"I really wanted the
film to be ABOUT something, and at the same really
entertaining."
Despite the film dealing with a short time in the lives of two
tragic characters, Taylor insists that the film is far from
pessimistic. "There's a lot of dark and cynical humour in
the film, but at the same time, without getting too schmalzy, I
took it to a place where there is a lot of growth, or heart. I
didn't want to have one of those films that had so much of its
tongue in the cheek, that it lets everybody get blown away at the
end. I really wanted the film to be ABOUT something, and at the
same really entertaining."
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