Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

tieman64 John Sayles directs "Passion Fish". The plot? Soap star May Alice (played by Mary McDonnell) is rendered a paraplegic after a freak automobile accident. She soon finds herself housebound and cared for by Chantelle, a live in nurse played by Alfre Woodard.Like most films in this genre – "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", "Driving Miss Daisy", "The Waterdance", "My Left Foot", "The Whales of August", "Persona", "Cries and Whispers", "The Defiant Ones" etc – "Passion Fish" revolves around shifting power relationships. Here, May is a wealthy but crippled white woman and Chantelle is (or seems to be) an impoverished black woman who nevertheless has the full use of her body. Each depends on the other. What Sayles does is trick us into making parallels between privilege, race and servitude – even though the film's power dynamics work perfectly well as a literal, social comment – only to then later reveal that Chantelle is herself a wealthy woman, with a father who is a doctor.Our double take, our need to reassess our typecasting, is mirrored to the very reappraisals our stars are forced to make throughout the film. And so May reverses her snobbish attitude toward her home town, blacks, her art and locals, whilst striking up a relationship with a man called Rennie (played by Sayles regular David Strathairn). In a similar fashion, Chantelle reassess her role as an assistant, a woman of servitude, and her own racial prejudices.Late in the film it is revealed that Chantelle is struggling to overcome a drug addiction. The film then draws broad parallels between both women's debilitations, the point being that struggles cross all divides and that recovery is made easier in a world in which we all hold hands. This aspect of the film – and Sayles' ending – is very hokey, very maudlin. But most films which deal with racial issues in such a manner risk a condescending, trite, self congratulatory tone. Sayles' filmography is littered with such naive, on-the-nose preaching. Better to tackle similar issues indirectly, invisibly, and at off kilter angles. Still, the film is packed with good stuff. On the outskirts of the film's worn-out melodrama are numerous beautifully subtle or unconventional scenes. Mary McDonnell's performance is itself interesting – watch how she lets her accent reassert itself at several key points – and the film's Louisiana's backdrops are suitably moody (Sayles aesthetic is amateurish, but his scripting makes up for this).The film's title is conjured up best during one scene in which an actress invests considerable time and energy into elevating a trashy movie scene about aliens administering anal probes. The point: don't violate yourself by seeking fulfilment in hollow, vile pursuits and don't turn your back to genuine passions. Case in point May, who eschews small town life in favour for what she now realises is a grubby movie world populated by ditsy idiots, and Chantelle, who likewise turns her back to the people she loved and grew up amidst. But doesn't Sayles' somewhat patronising view of "them big city folk" undermine the very message of his film?7.9/10 – Like most of Sayles' best films, the actual narrative framework is more intelligent than the film's content (see Sayles' "Limbo). The way the act of watching the film is interwoven with the way the character's themselves watch and transform is genius. The film's actual content, though, is pure Hollywood "big issue" cheese, typical of a Paul Haggis, Steven Spielberg or Stanley Kramer.

Michael Neumann A crippled TV soap opera star (Mary McDonnell) retreats, with undisguised bitterness, to her neglected childhood home in Louisiana, where she proceeds to make life hell for a series of nurses, until the arrival of Alfre Woodard. The balance of the movie follows McDonnell's slow emotional recovery and her reluctant friendship with Woodard, but despite the similarity to so many other Hollywood rehab dramas there isn't a wasted word or image, and not a cliché in sight. The film marks a return to the intimate scale of director John Sayles' earlier efforts, and it's a pleasure to finally see a mainstream American movie with the novelty of real characters speaking believable dialogue, written by a filmmaker with enough patience to allow his story to develop at a natural pace. The result is a leisurely but powerful drama, with more than its share of humor and with plenty of lively local Cajun culture. Trivia note: both McDonnell and Woodard were previously featured in Lawrence Kasdan's Yuppie wish-fulfillment fantasy 'The Grand Canyon' where, ironically, they never shared a single scene.

jt4logos I finally bought this film because I kept renting it. The slow pace is just right, never boring, and puts one endearing and individual character after another before us. Sugar is one of my favorites. David Straitharn is a brilliant actor and his characterization of Rennie has not one false note. I have lived in South Louisiana for 30 years and this movie made the area another character; the sense of place is flawless. The two leading ladies never upstage either each other or any of the other actors; this movie is a true ensemble piece. All of this keeps me coming back to this very redemptive film, a real work of art. Particularly well done is the contrast between the artificial world of New York theater, and the real world of ordinary people facing very difficult problems. The viewer is deliberately made comfortable in that real world, with no sense of being patronized. This reviewer gave up a professional theater career for "the real world", and I am very glad to see a film that doesn't just tell the truth but shows it in every nuance, in every note of music, and in the wonderful pauses between scenes. May-Alice gives me a jolt of hope and humor every time I see this film. Bravo.

movietom-2 The kudos here go to David Strathairn (a wonderful, overlooked performer in "Matewan," "L.A. Confidential" and numerous other films). He comes the closest I've seen on film to an actual Cajun, from the accent down to details such as the white shrimp boots. When will this actor get the Oscar he deserves (as Jim Broadbent finally did this year)?