"Passion Fish" begins with a scene from May-Alice's soap opera, and by the end we see how far such canned melodrama is from the real lessons of life. Just confirm how you got your ticket. The film is an international co-production between France and Germany. Advertisement . Chantelle’s visitors from her past include a lover from Chicago–the father of her child, with whom she almost died–and her father, who still treats her like a child. After soap opera actress May-Alice Culhane (Mary McDonnell) has a car accident, she is paralyzed and forced into a wheelchair. Centering on female friendship, Passion Fish coincided with a cycle of studio films about female bonding, such as Thelma and Louise, A League of Their Own, and Fried Green Tomatoes. An anti-Reagan story, Passion Fish is cynical about monetary success and realistic the inevitability of class distinctions. |, October 8, 2006 It tells the story of a soap opera star, paralyzed after being struck by a taxi, who is forced to return to her family home and rely upon a series of nurses, forcing each of them to leave her employment until one shows up guaranteed to stay. May-Alice finally meets her equal in strength in Chantelle (Alfre Woodard), a black nurse from Chicago. The appearance of two men change the women’s romantic prospects. Just leave us a message here and we will work on getting you verified. A painstakingly accurate portrait of suffering, Sayles shows a woman confined to a wheelchair, unable to get to the bathroom on her own.

A follow-up to the sprawling, criss-crossing City of Hope, Passion Fish is a more tightly-focused narrative about interior struggles and unexpected changes. Happy Mardi Gras, everyone! Working with discipline, Sayles takes his time in developing the relationship.


Since American culture is success-obsessed and youth-oriented, for Sayles the question is: “How do you deal with it when you’ve failed and you know it Do you crawl up into a ball and get bitter and die Or do you find some other way to express yourself and like yourself”. |, January 1, 2000 | Fresh (24). More for the ladies I think. Sign up here. The film stars Mary McDonnell as May-Alice, a soap opera star whose life is suddenly changed by fate. | Rating: B In a typical TV docudrama, this would be the setup for a heartwarming tale of uplift and courage. We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your account. She has enough money to hire a full-time companion, and she interviews several of them, all with a lot of problems of their own.

We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future. Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email. A boat trip into the swamps represents a journey of renewal backward in time: The country’s folk tradition alters the women’s urban consciousness.

Each of these meetings between May-Alice and her past requires her to play a different role, and that's also the case when Rennie (David Strathairn) turns up one day to make some repairs on the house. This is a tough, muscular story about a headstrong woman who wants things to go her way. The reason is that Sayles understands the appeal of these kinds of dramas while always grounding the screenplay in realistic uncertainty. Feb 14, 2012.

| Rating: 4/5, March 4, 2003 John Sayles' Passion Fish has a plot out of a Pedro Almodóvar film. |, May 29, 2018 A tightly-focused narrative about interior struggles and unexpected changes, the film is a cynical anti-Reagan story about monetary success and class distinctions, a political fable about female survivors.

But things are not always as they seem.
|, December 11, 1992

Chantelle is relentlessly controlling, a taskmaster trying to change Mary-Alice, but she also realizes she desperately needs the job. May-Alice fights back. Passion Fish drifts slowly by, like the turgid waters of Louisiana's bayous. | Top Critics (4) Passion Fish (1992): John Sayles Best Film? After an accident leaves her a paraplegic, a former soap opera star struggles to recover both emotionally and mentally, until she meets her newest nurse, who has struggles of her own. It is an interesting division of power: The companion is healthy and able-bodied, and has the freedom of movement. | Rating: 3/4 But John Sayles' "Passion Fish" cuts closer to the bone. As the two women become friends, they help each other cope with challenges. The lines of power, class, and race play their roles without suffocating the evolving friendship. Virtual Ebert Symposium 2020 Will Kick off October 8th, Explore the Evolving Media Landscape, Emily in Paris is a Bland Sex and the City Imitation with No Identity of Its Own, Six Books That Raise A Five-Alarm Warning Against the President. A couple are hired for varying lengths of time, before they are fired or walk off the job. John Sayles says he has been interested in such relationships between client and companion ever since he watched them develop in his own family. But John Sayles' "Passion Fish" cuts closer to the bone. Cinemark Her life is essentially going nowhere before her accident. The movie suggests that healing is a mutual process, that the healer needs a large dose of rehab too. Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. Neil Jordan won the Original Screenplay Oscar for The Crying Game. She has some money and a home down in the bayou country, where her family is from, and after she finishes with rehabilitation therapy (where she is a very poor candidate), she goes back down there to sit in her chair and drink wine and harbor her bitterness. This 10-digit number is your confirmation number. You're almost there! Like much of Sayles’ work, Passion Fish concerns the dreams and hopes of ordinary individuals defeated by big, powerful forces. May-Alice is used to being willful and spoiled. and the Terms and Policies, The film stars Mary McDonnell as May-Alice, a soap opera star whose life is suddenly changed by fate. Yet in a deeper sense, one that only gradually reveals itself to May-Alice, what she needs most of all from Chantelle is the other woman's ability to stand up to her. Regal Chantelle does not find her behavior acceptable. Just below that it reads "Ticket Confirmation#:" followed by a 10-digit number. | Rating: 4/5, June 22, 2004 We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your email. This is a tough, muscular story about a headstrong woman who wants things to go her way. She sits in a big, dark house, drinking and watching TV–Sayles creates a Gothic atmosphere with allusions to Robert Aldrich’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane in which a pathetic paraplegic was played by the formerly glamorous star, Joan Crawford. She's in a dead-end career, her marriage has ended, and she's filled with a deep discontent. Don't have an account? She retreats to her family's vacant home in Louisiana and indulges in alcohol and self-pity. Given the premise, the movie is remarkably unsentimental while still managing to be deeply moving. McDonnell and Woodard both deliver powerful performances and Sayles' script is intricate and complex and features character that are incredibly well-developed. Although his subject is a minefield of cliches and the material cries out to be processed into a disease-of-the-week docudrama, he creates vivid, original characters for his story - characters like Uncle Max (William Mahoney), who comes to visit and reveals his entire lifetime in a few sentences, or May-Alice's childhood friends, or the actresses who worked with her on television. Passion Fish 20th Anniversary Poster In … On the surface, the heroines play familiar types, but Sayles again shows his forte in etching deft characterizations, detailing the emotional transformation of each woman and the bond they establish once they get to know one another. The bayou country–its myths and charms–is integrated into the texture of the film. So there is a delicate balance, a struggle, sometimes unacknowledged, that goes on all day. Please click the link below to receive your verification email. | Rating: A- April 28, 2006 by EmanuelLevy. By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie. |, January 1, 2000

The client, like May-Alice, has power over the sources of money, and can try to control the other person through threats to their economic security. At first, the two women go at each other. PASSION FISHwas filmed in this small town and the surrounding area of Southwestern Louisiana, and has become a real point of pride for the members of the community. Directed by John Sayles. Sayles writes his own movies, which range from "Eight Men Out" to "Matewan" to the powerful "City Of Hope," and he has rarely written more three-dimensional characters than this time. Coming Soon. An anti-Reagan story, Passion Fish is cynical about monetary success and realistic the inevitability of class distinctions. | Rating: B The first fifteen minutes or so of "Passion Fish" are misleading, as the film eventually develops into something great. The struggle at the heart of the movie is lightened by the comic portraits of May-Alice's many visitors (I would have liked to see a whole movie about Uncle Max, and an old friend named Precious deserves a short subject of her own). Both women are fighting for dignity and survival, and in due process, each woman discovers what’s important to her through the alliance with the other. There are no approved quotes yet for this movie. The percentage of Approved Tomatometer Critics who have given this movie a positive review. The romance is handled with a delicate, tentative touch that reflects the character's feelings for one another. September 7, 2011 The percentage of users who rated this 3.5 stars or higher. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy