Arizona Dream is an offbeat comedy with a surreal twist about the intermingling lives of a group of unusual characters. Johnny Depp stars as Axel Blackmar who works in New York tagging fish and monitoring their behaviour and is obsessed with trying to find out if fish dream. The film follows the story of Axel returning to his hometown in Arizona and his quirky encounters and relationships with various characters. 'Arizona Dream' is one of those films you'll either love with a passion or find completely boring, but if you're a fan of surreal films like 'Big Fish' and 'Amélie' then 'Arizona Dream' is worth a look.
The poker-faced Johnny Depp and the still beguiling Faye Dunaway head an exuberant cast who readily immerse themselves in Kusturica's delightfully surreal world of lust and quarrels and broken crockery not to mention his trademark dotty contraptions (in this case a flying machine) to a musical background of Django Reinhardt and a manic accordion (another directorial leitmotif). But this foray into the English language doesn't quite have the engaging edge of Kuturica's native Serbian movies, so gloriously anarchic and wonderfully mad.
The film has a very promising beginning, introducing some interesting characters and developing some mysterious themes. There's quite a bit of comedy and almost every scene is characterised by an attention to detail which creates a profound sense of significance in the most incidental elements of the production. But sadly, for me anyway, the plot disappears up it's own back end. It's also too long for the story, and left me with an overwhelming feeling of disappointment. Maybe I watched it on an off day, but there is an interview with Johnny Depp included in the special features, and it sounds as if Kusturica was going through his own struggles during the making of the film.