This is the movie that launched the career of Tom Hanks. Hanks portrays Allen Bauer and John Candy portrays his older brother, Freddy Bauer. Together they run a vegetable distributor in New York. The movie presents us this first, and Allen's messed up love life. He decides to take a break to Cape Cod, where his family had a happy vacation. But through a series of bad luck, he ends up capsized, and the boat hits him in the head.
He is rescued by a mermaid (Bo Derek) who puts him ashore and waits until he wakes so Allen sees her. She finds his wallet in the ocean, and decides to visit him in New York. She arrives on Liberty Island naked. But she has Allen's wallet, and he is contacted and comes to collect her; which starts a lorid love affair. She has a seven day vacation as a human, but after that she can only stay if she becomes human forever. Allen is unaware of her mermaid qualities, just that she is different. She decides to accept his proposal of marriage, meaning she will give up being a mermaid.
However enters Walter Kornbluth (Eugene Levy) who is determined to expose her, and prove to the world that his theories on mermaids are real--they do exist. After a couple failures where he sprays water on innocent women trying to turn them to mermaids, he finally does expose her. She is taken away for scientific experiments. He is also taken due to their interaction. However when he proves to have no abilities he is let go. Allen is lost, but his brother reminds him that love is love and is very rare. Allen needs to save her. They recruit Kornbluth for the attempt, and pretending to be Swedish scientists they make the attempt.
The ending is different than you might think. This show is very cute and introduces Tom Hanks to the world. Ron Howard directed. Even with Candy's character being a bit loud, and even Tom Hanks giving Allen the same quality at times, I enjoyed this show. Bo Derek, being a model, does well in an acting roll.
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