The Czech sci-fi comedy Who Wants to Kill Jessie is one of the most oddball, whimsical, original films I've seen in quite a while. It starts off with a brilliant yet seldom explored premise: What happens when fictional characters find themselves trapped in reality. It then proceeds to explore this idea in a most comical fashion, and to blend fantasy and reality in a way that is both seamless and jarring.
It all begins with an older married couple. The husband, a mechanical engineer, has become hooked on a comic serial which shares the name of this film. The wife, a neurologist, has developed a method of viewing and modifying a person's dreams, which unknown to her, also brings their dreams to life. When she hears her husband talking in his sleep about some 'Jessie', she promptly tries out her invention on him. And sure enough, they are soon joined not only by Jessie, but also the villains who have been pursuing her for the secrets to her inventions. Mayhem ensues as the living dreams chase each other across the city, the cops try to keep up, and the wife grows more and more jealous.
Who Wants to Kill Jessie gets high marks for the originality of its ideas, and even higher marks for how it explores them. For instance, the way the fictional characters continue to communicate in speech bubbles, leading one boy to reply "Sorry miss, I can't read." Or the way that when someone takes an uppercut, they take a ballistic trajectory over the nearest rooftop. You can tell that something's off with the jerky way they move, but that only makes it more cartoonish. And in the comic books, it doesn't matter how much destruction your battles leave, but in the real world, you put a hole in someone's bathroom wall and you're looking at a lawsuit.
Which brings up an interesting question: Can visions be held liable for damages, or are they the responsibility or the one who dreamed them? This and other questions are dealt with in the most ridiculous courtroom scene since Duck Soup. The scientists' attempts to figure out what to do with the figments are equally comic and unorthodox.
Not all of the laughs come from the fish-out-of-water paradigm either. The henpecked husband angle is played for all it's worth. And the wife's jealousy has ironic payoff when she finds the man of her dreams. The weak-willed, bribe taking prison guard is also good for a chuckle, and perhaps a subtle comment on the government. More direct is one doctor's comment about the party's potential uses for the dream modification technology. One thing about the Czechs; even when they're cracking you up, they know how to make a serious point.
