Summary
We see Anne sitting at home at the dinner table. Jack isn’t there, and she begins complaining to herself out loud that she is unappreciated. Meanwhile, Jack and Parry are in Central Park at night. While Jack is worried about the dangers of the park at night, Parry encourages Jack to take off his clothes and do some “cloudbusting.” As Parry jumps around in the nude, Jack becomes more and more frustrated, before lying down beside him on the grass and looking at the moon.
As they lie there, Parry tells Jack the story of the Fisher King, who was once in possession of the Holy Grail, after a vision came to him and made him the keeper of the Grail. When the Fisher King lost it, he grew old and despondent, but was one day saved by a fool coming through his kingdom. The fool gave the king a drink of water, and the cup he drank out of turned out to be the Holy Grail. The Fisher King was revived by the drink, and saved. It is implied that Parry gave a lecture on the Fisher King shortly before he had his nervous breakdown.
Suddenly, the wayward knight sits up anxiously, seeing the Red Knight nearby. Jack grabs him and jolts him out of his delusion, asking him why he never asks Lydia out on a date. “I have to earn her,” Parry tells him, but Jack has other ideas. With Parry’s attention, Jack tells him all the reasons it would be nice to have a girlfriend, telling him that a partner can make one feel more courageous. “Is that what your girlfriend does for you?” Parry asks. “Sure,” Jack says, ambivalently.
The next day, Jack waits outside Lydia’s office until she goes into work. He runs after her. Later, we see him looking through a phone book for her number, and calling her. As he asks the receptionist for “Lydia,” Anne comes in and mocks him for engaging in what she thinks is an affair. Hanging up angrily, Jack tells Anne that he is planning to set Parry up with Lydia, in hopes of doing some good in the world.
Anne grabs the phone and dials the number for him. He plays a tape, a groovy song, and plays it into the phone as Lydia picks up the phone in her office. Affecting a voice, Jack tells Lydia that she has won a free membership at his and Anne’s video store, and a free video cassette player. He invites Lydia to come to the store, hoping to stage a meeting with Parry. Abruptly Lydia becomes suspicious that it’s a scam and hangs up.
Jack’s next plan of attack is to send the ex-cabaret singer in to deliver Lydia a singing telegram. Dressed in drag, the performer rushes into the office, in a red dress, blonde wig, and holding a bundle of balloons. He goes to Lydia’s desk and tells her she’s won a free membership at the video store, before mounting a desk and singing a medley from Gypsy. Lydia is confused, but also amused.
We see Jack putting a t-shirt on Parry and telling him to pretend to work there when Lydia comes in. He stands behind the desk as Lydia comes in. She wants to rent a musical, and Parry awkwardly helps her pick something out. Lydia and Parry are both exceedingly clumsy, knocking a bunch of movies off their shelves in the process. While Lydia doesn’t find any videos she likes, she admires Anne’s manicure, which Anne says she did herself—she used to be a manicurist.
Seeing an opportunity, Jack offers for Anne to give Lydia a manicure. Anne offers to do it for $40, and Lydia decides that she wants to get them done. Parry says that Anne can do them that night.
The scene shifts and we see Anne serving Parry some food. He looks at her breasts lecherously, and Anne goes over to Jack to complain about Parry’s bad manners. “I mean, I got off with some bums in my day, but they were beautiful. That’s the reason to go out with a bum!” Anne hisses at Jack. Parry engages Anne in conversation and asks her why she hasn’t settled down with a man. “You? This incredible woman going to waste before my very eyes?!” he yells, offering to have intercourse with her. Horrified, Anne begins yelling, but Jack reenters and gives Parry a suit to try on for his date with Lydia.
Lydia arrives at Anne’s apartment, commenting on the fact that she’s never been in an apartment above a store before. “Can I get you something? Coffee? Tea? Tequila?” Anne asks. Looking down at the manicure instruments, Lydia asks if it will hurt. The scene shifts and we see Jack putting a mud mask on Parry, then laying teabags over his eyes. In the next room, Anne asks Lydia if there’s anyone special in her life. “Does it look like there’s anyone special in my life?” Lydia says, pointedly. As Lydia complains about dating “in this day and age,” Anne can concur, telling her that she’s been “dating longer than she’s been driving.” When Lydia tells her she’s never been through a “dating process,” Anne assures her, “It’s a disgusting process. You haven’t missed a thing.”
Analysis
In this section of the film, we learn about the titular Fisher King. When Jack and Parry go to Central Park in the evening, Parry tells him the story of the king, drawing on a lecture he once gave before losing his mind. The story has undeniable parallels with both his and Jack’s respective life stories. Like the king, Jack loses grasp of his own “Grail” when he loses his radio show and his riches. It takes a “fool”—Parry—to come and restore his ambition and desire for prosperity, to release from his deep depression. Jack serves a similar function for Parry, reuniting him with his desires—namely, his desire for Lydia—and teaching him to find some order in his life.
At the end of their discussion of the Fisher King, Jack insists to Parry that what he needs in his life is a girlfriend. He tells Parry, “A woman who loves you keeps you going, gives you strength. Makes you feel like you can do anything.” While he once just wanted to throw some money at Parry for some peace of mind, Jack is now adamant in his assertion that Jack should try and meet someone. Unexpectedly, Parry turns Jack’s assertions back on him. “Is that what your girlfriend does for you?” Parry asks, to which Jack responds, “Sure, yeah,” seemingly unconvinced.
Jack’s relationship with Anne isn’t exactly strong, as he often wishes she was more up-to-speed intellectually, while she frets about the fact that he isn’t around enough. Once they begin working together to matchmake Parry with Lydia, their connection strengthens, even if Anne is less enthusiastic about the plot. Anne is the one that dials the phone when they call Lydia to pretend that she has won a free membership, and she goes along with the plot to invite Lydia over to the apartment, even while rolling her eyes.
In addition to Anne, Jack enlists the help of some other unlikely associates in order to get Parry and Lydia to meet. In a particularly outrageous scene, Jack sends the former cabaret singer in full drag to force his way into Lydia’s office and perform for her. If Lydia will not respond to a telephone solicitation, there is no way she can possibly resist a flamboyant drag performance in the middle of the day. The singer belts his way through a medley of songs from Gypsy with the lyrics rewritten to reflect the fabricated promotional membership she has received, and she cannot help but smile.
When Lydia arrives to get her nails done that evening, she and Anne enjoy their own special rendezvous, while Jack helps Parry to clean up before his encounter with his beloved. The women and the men break into their respective makeover sessions, and find that they have more in common than they suspected. As Lydia talks cynically about her dating life, Anne cannot help but enthusiastically agree. Meanwhile, Jack and Parry share a tender moment as Jack puts a facial mud mask on Parry’s eyes, and teabags to improve the skin around his eyes.
