stephanlinsenhoff "The Cajuns have always squeezed the passion fish, some swallow the passion fish, thinking hard of the one they want to be liked off." The successful soap star May-Alice Culhane is after a taxi accident a paraplegic, bound to her wheelchair. She returns to her childhood home in Louisiana. To cope with the sudden chock of the totally new situation (like this starts the movie, May-Alice not understanding where she is and what happened. Finally at home in her childhoods home she starts drinking and watching television as the only thing to do. For the ever changing help she is the unbearable 'bitch on wheels'. Until Chantelle enters the scene. We know all about the bitter, white mistress. What she was, what happened to her and how it is now for her. But Chantelle? Parts and bits of the black recovering cocaine addicts background emerges slowly in bits and pieces. When Lucas shows up. When her father with her daughter pays a visit. Her father is the legal guardian for her daughter: "as long I think it is necessary" he tells Chantelle, his daughter. The white mistress and her black servant seem to be far apart: white and black. Two different worlds. But not: they sit in the same boat (shown metaphoric when the movie ends. Chantelle: "We are stuck with each other" and answered by May-Alice: "For the time being." May-Alice is visited twice by her former work, hardly hiding their pity for May-Alice and her black servant. When nothing is left to hide behind the white bitterness and the black stubbornness the afford to pretend is with no meaning. The possibility emerges: not to recognize but to see the other. Each other. Both in need of help. Helping each other. With no-way-out-option. Instead pity: respect. They are assisted by Rennie, the childhood crush, the Cajun handyman (Chantelle mouthes silent to her: "He likes you." And Sugar LeDoux, the local cowboy with children around every corner. He seduces Chantelle with smiling charm and dances with her daughter at the local festivity. Watched by the critical eyes of Chantelles father. Does the cowboy want Chantelles heart he must behave. The womens forced-up respect transforms to friendship. Behind their private disaster as crippled successful soap star and the recovering cocaine addict eds last chance for a job. This job. Both on their way to accept again life. Mirroring each others needs. Both crippled: a white body and a black soul.

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.

bill-479 It was my turn to pick the film and I picked this one because I like John Sayles and David Strathairn movies. Lone Star, Matewan, and Limbo are some that I really liked. After the first 10 minutes, I thought it was just another chick flick. My wife was going to owe me one. I hung in there and got caught up in the story. It's a 7 but I gave it an 8 since I liked the critter scenes. (Note to continuity people: Rennie's bass turned into a catfish when he opened it up for the passion fish).

Jugu Abraham I have only caught up with two of Sayles' directorial works "Limbo" and "Passion Fish". Though the subjects of the two films are quite dissimilar, Sayles penchant for building interesting character profiles is unmistakable in both. Both films have an interesting screenplay, developing anecdotes that seem to be strung together like beads on a necklace. In "Passion Fish", a somewhat successful actress watches TV soaps and makes comments. Zoom out of the situation and you realize that situation itself is close to a TV soap opera. Now directors like Robert Altman and Paul Mazursky have done similar themes with considerable success. European cinema (Claude Sautet for one) has numerous examples of what Sayles did in the US a decade before in Europe. Yet Sayles like Mazursky ("An Unmarried Woman","Harry and Tonto", etc.) is able to instill humor and pathos into his celluloid essays with considerable felicity.What makes "Passion Fish" tick? At a very obvious level there is a remarkable performance by Mary MacDonnell. You need to be a stage actress to have done justice to the demanding role of a paraplegic--perhaps Billie Whitelaw or Anne Bancroft or Joanne Woodward would have fared as well as Mary. Much of Mary's acting is limited to voice modulation and restricted body movements.Two other performers stand out: Alfre Woodard and David Strathairn. I have watched Strathairn perform in other movies but he is just superb when working for Sayles."Passion Fish" like "Limbo" has a strong musical selection. Sayles, like Michael Mann and Peter Weir, has a good ear for music and sound editing. Yet "Limbo" outclasses "Passion Fish" by a mile in this department, thanks mainly to the song sung by lead actress herself. Finally the film "Passion Fish" survives on a strong screenplay and above average direction. The screenplay is loaded with social comments expressed in a documentary style: comments on a "business manager" who never appears, race relationships, religion ("she took to it after the second child.."), etc. The film expects us to follow the obvious childhood sweethearts-meet-again route but interestingly does not. This is the stamp of Sayles--a filmmaker who makes a sudden twist towards the end that makes all what preceded look better than it did. He did this in "Limbo" with aplomb, but "Passion fish" seems to anticipate the more accomplished storytelling of "Limbo"--the dark swamp metaphor of "Passion Fish" seems to be heralding the cloudy sky of "Limbo". One thing is certain--Sayles is an important screenplay writer comparable to David Mamet and Terrence Malick. As a director one could argue that his work is not new in style ("Limbo" harks back to "The Oxbow Incident") yet he cannot be dismissed--his work stands out amongst contemporary American movies, especially independent cinema.