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Passion Fish (1992)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
11 December 1992 (USA) morePlot:
May-Alice Culhane was a successful soap opera star, but a car accident has left her bound to a wheelchair... more | full synopsisAwards:
Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 4 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(2 articles)
Marisa vs. Miranda vs. Judy ~ 1992 Smackdown (From FilmExperience. 31 May 2009, 2:25 PM, PDT)
Red Carpet Lineup
(From FilmExperience. 10 December 2008, 9:13 PM, PST)
User Comments:
Impressive but not as good as Sayles' "Limbo" moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| 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 |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
135 minCountry:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
Color (DuArt)Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreSound Mix:
DolbyCertification:
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:RFun Stuff
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). moreGoofs:
Continuity: Rennie's bass turned into a catfish when he opened it up for the passion fish. moreQuotes:
Nina: (discussing a line of dialogue she gave in an earlier movie) I didn't ask for the anal probe. moreSoundtrack:
Attack Of The Mutant Guitars moreFAQ
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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.