‘Welcome to the Fishbowl’ review: A familiar road trip worth taking
Natalie Gold and Jeremy Swift really pop in Sheryl Glubok's "Welcome to the Fishbowl."
Elizabeth (Natalie Gold) is having one of those mornings. She’s trying to prepare for an interview, but her husband is distracted, her children need her attention and one of them has just spilled cereal all over her dress. She lets out an exasperated “Fuck,” which her son promptly adopts as his new favorite word.
It’s a terrific introduction to “Welcome to the Fishbowl,” a Colorado road-trip comedy about a woman who’s spent so much time taking care of everybody else that she’s forgotten how to pursue her own ambitions.
Denver filmmaker Sheryl Glubok‘s 107-minute feature doesn’t offer many surprises. Fortunately, Gold and Jeremy Swift are such delightful traveling companions that it doesn’t matter that you can predict exactly where the film is going miles before the characters do.
Jeremy Swift and Natalie Gold in “Welcome to the Fishbowl.”
Elizabeth, a former assistant to powerful New York literary agent Vivian (Marin Hinkle), moved to Denver intending to finish her novel. Years later, she’s raising two children, struggling to find work and married to Peter (Sendhil Ramamurthy), a lawyer whose relationship with his briefcase seems healthier than his marriage.
When Vivian offers to read Elizabeth’s manuscript in exchange for driving temperamental bestselling novelist Storm (Swift) to an awards ceremony in Telluride, Elizabeth seizes the opportunity despite Peter’s objections. Storm, naturally, is a cantankerous bugger in the midst of an existential crisis who has absolutely no interest in going.
Elizabeth discovers him splashing around in a Cheesman Park fountain, celebrating his newfound appreciation for life following a sex-filled evening with a rope enthusiast. After a stop at Pete’s Kitchen and a shopping spree at Rockmount Ranch Wear involving some spectacularly ridiculous horse-themed underwear, the mismatched pair hits the road.
Familiar detours, fantastic company
Swift is hilarious as the egotistical author, whose pompous pronouncements and complete inability to drive make him an exceptionally irritating passenger. When he complains that Vivian sent him “a mouse” instead of “a lion,” Elizabeth finally snaps. He doesn’t need a lion, she tells him — he needs a babysitter.
Gold makes that eruption count. Elizabeth’s frustration with being everybody’s assistant has been simmering for years, and Gold gives her a recognizable mixture of exhaustion and determination. Their chemistry carries the film through its more predictable stretches.
The screenplay, co-written by Glubok and Donald Rae, is at its funniest when it embraces absurdity. Storm’s encounter with a climbing-store employee (Katie Finneran) leaves his hotel room in a spectacular tangle of ropes. Meanwhile, Peter’s boss praises a recently deceased colleague for working constantly, apparently hoping he’ll keep at it in the afterlife.
The trouble comes when the script needs another obstacle. A ludicrous police-station escape and a car that runs out of gas at the precise moment of an argument feel like contrivances to keep the plot moving.
A still from “Welcome to the Fishbowl.”
Fortunately, there’s tremendous pleasure in watching Colorado play itself. Cinematographer Eve Cohen captures gorgeous mountain scenery alongside familiar Denver landmarks, including Union Station, Denver Central Market and Rockmount Ranch Wear. Local performers Adam Cayton-Holland, Caleb Reed and Shauna Earp add welcome hometown flavor.
“Welcome to the Fishbowl” isn’t reinventing the road-trip comedy, but it left me grinning. Gold and Swift are excellent company, and the views are so good that I was sad when the trip ended.
