Passion Fish (1992)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

John Sayles

Writer (WGA):

John Sayles (written by)

Release Date:

11 December 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

May-Alice Culhane was a successful soap opera star, but a car accident has left her bound to a wheelchair...

Plot Keywords:

Louisiana | Accident | Actress | Soap Opera | Bayou

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Mary McDonnell	...	May-Alice Culhane
Alfre Woodard	...	Chantelle
Lenore Banks	...	Nurse Quick
Vondie Curtis-Hall	...	Sugar LeDoux
Will Mahoney	...	Max
David Strathairn	...	Rennie
Leo Burmester	...	Reeves
Nelle Stokes	...	Therapist #1
Brett Ardoin	...	Therapist #2
Nora Dunn	...	Ti-Marie
Michael Mantell	...	Dr. Kline
Mary Portser	...	Precious
Angela Bassett	...	Dawn / Rhonda
Daniel Dupont	...	Therapist #3
Chuck Cain	...	Attendant

Runtime:

135 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DuArt)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:S | Peru:14 | South Korea:12 (DVD rating) | Spain:13 | Sweden:7 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Elton, Louisiana, USA

Company:

Atchafalaya

Trivia:

'Mary McDonnell' prepared for her role as the wheelchair-bound May-Alice by attending physical training and hospital sessions with counselors and real paraplegics. She had to do this while she was concurrently filming Sneakers (1992).

Goofs:

Continuity: Rennie's bass turned into a catfish when he opened it up for the passion fish.

Quotes:

Nina: (discussing a line of dialogue she gave in an earlier movie) I didn't ask for the anal probe.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Grosse Pointe: Passion Fish (#1.16)" (2001)

Soundtrack:

Attack Of The Mutant Guitars

Impressive but not as good as Sayles' "Limbo"

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.