Starring: Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, David Strathairn, Vondie Curtis-Hall
Director: John Sayles
Producers: Sarah Green and Maggie Renzi
Screenplay: John Sayles
Music: Mason Daring
Released by Miramax Films
After being rendered a paraplegic in a freak New York City automobile accident, soap opera star May- Alice (Mary McDonnell) retreats to the house in Louisiana that she inherited from her parents. There, she is cared for by nurses who come and go with revolving door regularity, driven away by May-Alice's bitterness -- until the arrival of Chantelle (Alfre Woodard), that is. Desperately needing a job and pursued by her own personal crises, Chantelle has no choice but to stick it out.
Passion Fish, which features powerful performances from Mary McDonnell and Alfre Woodard, embodies two of the most familiar storytelling motifs around: the growth of a relationship between two mismatched people and the valiant fight of someone to conquer a disability. In a way, the movie is a little like Driving Miss Daisy, with a healthy dose of The Waterdance thrown in. Featuring an unhurried tone, Passion Fish is primarily concerned with the hearts and minds of its characters; their circumstances are of secondary importance.
In its portrayal of paraplegics and the struggles they have to endure adjusting to their disabilities, Passion Fish doesn't pack the emotional punch of The Waterdance. In his 1992 film, Neal Jimenez gave one of the definitive screen portrayals of how a once-normal person comes to grips with the sudden loss of mobility. However, while Passion Fish effectively conveys May-Alice's pain and resentment, the film has a fundamentally different agenda from that of The Waterdance.
This isn't the most accomplished "buddy film" of recent memory, but it is one of the rare few featuring women, and possesses more candor and openness than Jon Avnet's Fried Green Tomatoes. Writer/director John Sayles' strength has always been characters, and, in Passion Fish, he creates a vibrant, complex pair whose unique relationship elevates this movie abovemany of films that litter a similar landscape.
The bayous of Louisiana provide a rich backdrop. None of the cinematography is of epic scope, but there's something about the wetlands, with their alligators and snakes, that arrests the attention. It's also interesting to note how Mary McDonnell allows May-Alice's accent to reassert itself gradually, even as her humanity slowly bubbles to the surface, passing through layers of bitterness and self-pity.
Passion Fish is for those who enjoy watching real-seeming people struggle through everyday crises in the wake of a tragedy. Sayles gets all the details right, and keeps his screenplay away from the worn-out melodrama that always lurks around the corner in films about the injured and infirm. Passion Fish a small movie about changes in attitude and understanding, and it knows when to be serious and when to laugh.
© 1993, 1996 James Berardinelli