passion fish
passion fish is available on dvd (i don’t know if it’s currently streaming anywhere) .
food was excellent as usual. we are never disappointed with our meals at passion fish .
rennie' s bass turned into a catfish when he opened it up for the passion fish .
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we’d love your help. let us know what’s wrong with this preview of passion fish by alison oburia .
we lived for three years in buenos aires and just returned from three years of fish abstinence, since they have no good fish there. we ate fish yesterday and today we went to explore this passion fish. i ate a chowder with some crab, a ...
passion fish trailer 1992 director: john sayles starring: alfre woodard, david strathairn, mary mcdonnell, vondie curtis - hall, nora dunn, official content from sony pictures home entertainment sayles' story of a television actress who moves back to louisiana after becoming paralyzed in a car accident. movie, passion fish movie, passion fish trailer, passion fish 1992, john sayles, alfre woodard, david strathairn, mary mcdonnell, vondie curtis - hall, nora dunn ,
black scabbardfish with bananas and passion - fruit - sauce | fish and seafood | dw | 09. 12. 2005
sauce: mix the mayonnaise, tobasco and orange juice. add the passion fruit juice. serve cold with the fish .
passion fish has the benefit of sayles' smart dialogue, his eye for and attention to minor details and the riveting performances of two fine actresses .
passion fish has lots its glory. then menu is appetizing, and the food was ok but for us the experience was meh... .
we don‘t know passion fish ‘s story by heart, but we can assure you it‘s pretty awesome. message them to get to know more about their business .
for the passion - fruit - sauce 4 table spoons mayonnaise. 6 table spoons passion fruit juice. 1 drop tobasco. juice of 1 freshly pressed orange. preparation :
flour. breadcrumbs. 2 eggs (one for fish, one for bananas) .
our advanced equipment and software enable fish processors to optimize yield, throughput and product quality .
passion fish did a very good job taking care of my wife and i on our recent date night with no kids. the seafood was executed well as we relaxed with such good service .
to us innovation is more than a trendy word: it’s our passion, part of our dna .
fish: skin the fish and cut into eight centimetre - long pieces. season with salt, herbs, garlic and pepper. dip into flour and then egg. heat oil and fry fish for two to three minutes until golden - yellow. the oil should not be too hot .
after living in new england for the first twelve years of my life, my family moved to florida and never looked back. i spent many years in orlando and then moved to tampa, where am now with my wonderful husband of twenty years and two teen boys. i began writing passion fish after having a very vivid dream (basically the passion fish bar game chapters). when i couldn' t figure out where the story sho
the entree fish was smaller than that served by several high - end restaurants of my acquaintance, and had an aftertaste aroma suggesting that it shared space on the grill without adequate separation. i admittedly haven' t been to passion fish in a year, but recall it being better, even, very better, in the past .
passion fish
opened yesterday at the 68th street playhouse, where it will play for the one - week run necessary for academy award eligibility. its gentle manner contrasts nicely with the hot air of many higher - powered christmas releases .
sayles, who wrote the screenplay and directed, explores how the forced intimacy of chantelle and may - alice’s shared living situation leads to something honest and healing for them both. passion fish is a quiet, hopeful film, and it’s one i turn to often .
i hope that films that share passion fish ’s politics continue to be made and improved upon. i just hope more directors of color, and female directors of color in particular, get to make them. the next selection in the canon considers one such effort .
its been a while since we last dined at passion fish so when family members suggested reston, we decided to a return visit. . nice that valet parking is free as several restaurants charge. erin saw me for the front and made sure my car was ...
passion fish
was also edited by mr. sayles, who adopts a leisurely pace and often slows down to emphasize the seductive charm of cajun culture. his film is warmly appealing, played with subtlety and intelligence by both its stars. but like many of this season' s releases ,
passion fish
is needlessly long. with a two - and - a - quarter - hour running time, this essentially modest film often seems to be luxuriating in the story of chantelle and may - alice rather than making sure that story gets told .
in a typical tv docudrama, this would be the setup for a heartwarming tale of uplift and courage. but john sayles'
passion fish
cuts closer to the bone. this is a tough, muscular story about a headstrong woman who wants things to go her way .
we have been frequent diners at this passion fish since it opened going there on several special occasions, this being one of those times. we were disappointed this time. the service was very indifferent as was the food. hopefully, this was just an off night ...
four girlfriends play the passion fish game occasionally in a bar called stratus. one girl, who is blindfolded, is the bait and is kissed by the
fish
men whom the other girls have deemed worthy to passionately kiss the bait. thus this is the beginning of a story that has romance, sex, passion, obsession, and more romance. to be perfectly honest i usually don' t read this type of book but it was fun to read and actually took me away from all the
serious
novels that i have been reading lately .
four girlfriends play the passion fish game occasionally in a bar called stratus. one girl, who is blindfolded, is the bait and is kissed by the
fish
men whom the other girls have deemed worthy to passionately kiss the bait. thus this is the beginning of a story that has romance, sex, passion, obsession, and more romance. to be perfectly honest i usually don' t read this type of book but it was fun to read and actually took me away from all the
serious
novels that i have been reading lately. thank you alison and jessica !
passion fish - reston va is dedicated to providing the finest quality, sustainable seafood available in an upscale / casual fine dining experience. garage parking at reston town center will always be free for our guests. please park in the orange garage on explorer street and check in with us when you arrive .
of all the barriers that rise up between people - - sex, race, class, money, education, geography - - private pain is one of the most isolating. and pain, along with the other six, is a prominent subject of john sayles'
passion fish
( amc century 14) .
passion fish
is an episode of grosse pointe starring irene molloy, al santos, and lindsay sloane. marcy develops a friendship with buffy the vampire slayer (1996) star sarah michelle gellar through yoga class, leaving hunter feeling left out. the network begins pressing rob to come up... see full summary »
after attempting historical dramas and multi - character urban sagas, john sayles returns here to the kind of small, intimate film with which he first established his reputation. passion fish opens on a typically vivid sayles image: soap opera actress mary - alice culhane (mary mcdonnell) lying immobile in a hospital bed, watching herself walking and talking... read more
after living in new england for the first twelve years of my life, my family moved to florida and never looked back. i spent many years in orlando and then moved to tampa, where am now with my wonderful husband of twenty years and two teen boys. i began writing passion fish after having a very vivid dream (basically the passion fish bar game chapters). when i couldn' t figure out where the story should go from there, i' hooked up' (sorry, fish pun) with jessica mcquinn, plot queen extraordinaire, and together we created the novel. my second novel, between the lies, is a story that mixes international intrigue with plot twists and romance and is based on some real events of people i know who have had life - threatening
encounters
with the mafia (one in ukraine, the other in indonesia). it' s scheduled for release in october, 2012 .
chantelle is a strong woman, too. she is also determined to keep the job. she needs it, for more reasons than we know. she sizes up the situation, sees that may - alice needs less coddling and a lot less wine, and tries to take charge. may - alice fights back. and
passion fish
is essentially about the struggle of their wills .
a cute, easy read. not a lot to the plot, but sometimes that is just what i need. julian & jeanette were just annoying to no end, but hey, they are the bad guys. i wish there had been a little more to the story of josie & beau, i felt that was just stuck in there randomly. the concept of the passion fish game was cute .
passion fish
isn' t as impressive as sayles' last movie, the iconoclastic ensemble saga
city of hope .
like his 1983 lesbian love story ,
lianna ,
it' s something of a career breather: a simpler, more tightly focused personal drama, in which this almost self - consciously masculine director goes deliberately into more feminine territory, widening his perspective and honing his reflexes .
there’s a true sense of place to the works of john sayles (one of my favorite directors). the location of each of his films is intrinsic to the plot: the foggy irish waters in the secret of roan inish, the texas borderlands of lone star, the west virginia mining town of matewan, the alaskan wilds in limbo. his 1992 release, passion fish, dwells in a small, humid gulf town in louisiana, where accents abound .
also contributing mightily to the southern charm of
passion fish
are vondie curtis - hall as the rural blacksmith who somehow persuades the wary chantelle to let down her guard, and leo burmester as the wayward, tippling uncle in two - toned shoes, a colorful sine qua non in such a story. sheila kelley and angela bassett (betty shabazz in
malcolm x
) have some good moments as a couple of soap opera queens from may - alice' s past .
sayles may be one of the prime poet - proponents of the work ethic in american movies right now, and in
passion fish
( mpaa - rated r for language and adult situations), he suggests that in love, as in life, you have to sweat for your pleasures as much as to master your pain. this is a love story without tears, a soap opera with no soap, a political fable about survivors in the ruins of the reign of greed .
the menus at passionfish all reflect our' passion' for sourcing a premier selection of seafood from the world over, while the produce we use hails from within miles of our kitchen. we pride ourselves on creating simply elegant dishes with newly distinctive flavors .
passion fish
is about paraplegic white ex - tv soap star may - alice (mary mcdonnell) and her black nurse chantelle, a recovering drug addict (alfre woodard), and though that may sound like soap - opera material, sayles doesn' t sink into any traps of bathos. the movie' s setting is cajun country, louisiana, and the unbuttoned region, with its somnolent heat, exotic swampland and ragingly spicy music and food, helps sayles play against the sadder currents .
passion fish ,
a film much less precious than its title (which refers to a cajun superstition about finding love), is about the spiritual rebirth that finally occurs within may - alice. it' s also about the strong, sympathetic helpmate who makes such regeneration possible. the right nurse finally comes along in the person of chantelle (alfre woodard), who is only slightly cowed by may - alice' s insults and has had enough troubles of her own to understand her employer' s mean streak .
may - alice (mary mcdonnell) was on her way to a leg - waxing appointment when her life changed forever. hit by a car as she got out of a taxicab in new york city, may - alice was left permanently paralyzed. she formerly worked as a soap - opera actress, but nothing she simulated on television can match the drama her real life now offers. she is seen in a hospital, waking up to the daunting facts of her new life, as john sayles' s
passion fish
begins .
if you want elegant fish created with thought try passionfish. if you want fish and chips or a piece of fish just thrown on a grill you should go elsewhere. passionfish takes the monterey bay aquarium seafood watch recommendations seriously. for us that is very important and adds a star to the review. passionfish chefs are truly artists. they combine ingredients in a way that enhances the fish. we started with a crab avocado
salad
appetizer with spicy ginger and fennel. this asian influenced appetizer was excellent. it had arugula on the top hence the
salad
nomenclature but it felt more like a parfait without the glass. next, was halibut with dashi yams, snap peas and shiitake mushrooms and meyer lemon jam. all flavors were delicate and didn' t drown out the fish. finally we had the scallops with truffle butter and a rice custard. our server sold this as fantastic and we weren' t misled. the rice custard really added to the experience. think about that a bit: how often is rice elevated to a flavor status that is something other than boring? elegance like this comes at a price because kitchen prep and design is labor intensive. passionfish delivers a quality product at a reasonable price for the elegance you receive. if you want seafood that meets high sustainability and health standards consider visiting passionfish .
the struggle at the heart of the movie is lightened by the comic portraits of may - alice' s many visitors (i would have liked to see a whole movie about uncle max, and an old friend named precious deserves a short subject of her own). the romance is handled with a delicate, tentative touch that reflects the character' s feelings for one another .
passion fish
begins with a scene from may - alice' s soap opera, and by the end we see how far such canned melodrama is from the real lessons of life .
passion fish was my wife' s excellent choice for her birthday dinner. she liked her food which was a great deal and mine was just what i hoped for. everything was wonderful and the service was great. edwin, our waiter, was incredibly knowledgable about the wine and the food specials (no notes - - he just knew what he was talking about), efficient, friendly, available but never intrusive. he' s entitled to particular commendation. a nice cut above most restaurants in the reston town center. the decor is very sleek and modern .
first drinks took a long time to come, when bread finally arrived it came with some kind of whitefish paste, had to ask for butter, server spilled soup on my wife' s arm, red curry sauce was bland. fish itself was good. wont go back .
we had dinner with my daughter' s boss on the way to a two months archaeological operations in israel. the food was excellent. the fish was amazing. perfect night for the patio but we had to move tables when a small patch of rain passed by. overall excellent
we went one weeknight for a business dinner. the restaurant is a beautiful venue, with plenty of semi - private booths. they serve sushi as well as raw bar fish and those two areas are visible from the dining room, which adds an interesting view. the menu ...
reviewed for urltoken (7 out of 10 on the blog) do you ever have a book that sits there for ages and you put off reading it?' passion fish' was one of those books for me. i think it' s because i' m quite fussy about my genres, for example i like romance books, but have recently gone off what i would class as' chick - lit'. and, from reading the back cover, this book seemed more chick - lit than romance. however, while it has a touch of chick - lit about it, i would say it is more romance and
during their time together, layers are shed as the women become more frank with each other. their relationship is the core of passion fish, as both chantelle and may - alice are at a point in their lives when they are forced to start over. visitors from their past stop by (including angela bassett as one of may - alice’s former soap opera co - stars). two men from the parish — david straithairn (who also appeared that year with mcdonnell in sneakers) as a charming cajun handyman and vondie curtis - hall (chicago hope) as a smooth - talking farrier — get drawn into their private world .
we have always enjoyed passion fish and believe it to be one of the best choices in the reston town center. we reserved our table for father' s day at 12: 15 pm. while the food was as good as always, the service was very slow on this occasion. they were not organized and seemed under staffed for the holiday brunch service. our main course took over an hour to arrive. the table next to us was seated a few minutes after us and still had not received their entrees when we left the restaurant after 2: 00 pm. we will take this into consideration before dining there again on a holiday .
sayles is an award - winning director, writer, actor and author. he is credited with writing and editing most of his projects, including his latest film, go for sisters, and his recent historical novel, a moment in the sun. sayles supports his directing career as a “writer for hire” in hollywood. his book thinking in pictures: the making of the movie matewan, is still taught in film classes. he wrote and directed several films that have been nominated for academy awards, including lone star and passion fish. sayles also directed three music videos for bruce springsteen’s born in the usa, i' m on fire, and glory days .
went here for our anniversary. great service and food! curry salad, fish stew and sea bass crudo were the highlights! if you want a nice dinner that reflects all monterey has to offer from the ocean and land this is it. they even printed special menus with our anniversary date on them. thank you !
also in
passion fish ,
and well matched with ms. mcdonnell' s touchingly stubborn may - alice, is david strathairn as a louisiana native who looked good to her as a teen - ager, and looks even better now that he is a father of five. mr. strathairn appears in two of the film' s more magical sequences, a dream that restores may - alice to her earlier, sexually adventurous self and an all - day boat ride through the bayou that becomes a larger sort of journey. in these sequences, mr. strathairn' s handsome, down - to - earth rennie serves as both a reminder of everyday reality and a secret avenue of escape .
we' ve been long time loyalty members, and had seen a decline in food quality and service a couple years ago. we decided to give it a shot again, we' re incredibly happy with our evening. the manager erin was super friendly right from the start and and gave us a romantic table for our date night. on top of the periodic check - ins from erin, our server maria l. was wonderful and warm. the food was fantastic (special roll for an appetizer, with salmon, and whole crispy flounder for dinner), and the drinks were delicious. i rarely write reviews, but felt i should let others know that the food, service and ambiance at passion fish is well worth it .
with $ 3 million for the santa barbara museum of art on the line, curator eve carwyn hardly has time to focus on the state of her love life. struggling to escape the clutches of a creepy ex and looking to add some adventure to her personal life, eve is off on a much needed escape, and a business trip to boston. but before she goes, her pack of dedicated girlfriends plan a send - off party that includes mind - bending kisses from not one, but two, sensational - - yet anonymous partners. will a chance encounter and a searing kiss somehow end in a love match? will her career take off or lie in ruins when the grant results are in? join eve on her whirlwind journey through intrigue and ingenuity, terror and true love. once the passion fishing starts, her life will never be the same. passion fish is one part romance and one part heart pounding thriller. an innocent game of sexy distraction ignites a spark of love and a dangerous obsession in this exciting debut novel from alison oburia and jessica mcquinn. oburia and mcquinn offer an intriguing, suspenseful spin on the games people play when it comes to love, and the surprising lengths to which they ll go to earn it... and to keep it .
marel is the leading global provider of advanced equipment, systems and services to the fish, meat and poultry industries. our brand is among the most respected in the industry. we offer the convenience of a single source to meet our customers’ every need. with offices and subsidiaries in over 30 countries and a global network of more than 100 agents and distributors, we work side - by - side with our customers to extend the boundaries of food processing performance .
wonderful night! one of our favorite restaurants in the area. we went for loyalty members restaraunt week. great value, worth the $ 25 sign up, have been members for years. was disappointed when was told the 1 / 2 price thursday wine night was no longer an option for loyalty members, although they did honor it. feed back to them, bring it back please! we both had the crispy flounder, whole fish. our favorite dish! !
i' ve been wanting to try this place. not a happy customer and not coming back. i ordered the duck and it was as too sweet and dry. ordered a couple of fish dinner and out of all the entrees, the lamb was the best with flavor and texture. the calamari was was good from the appetizers and i was surprise that the fried oysters were tasty when i normally like my oyster raw. good customer service can use a little work .
holy molly! !! one of the best restaurants i' ve been in my life. there is no way to go wrong with anything you pick from the menu. 1 - we ordered a bottle of ampeleia 2013. hands down! ! 2 - the fish soup is to die for! !! perfect to share with the biscuits 3 - lamp was outrageously good and super rich. 4 - forced myself to eat some bread pudding because is a must! super happy we came here !
i originally read this as a fan fic and loved it. it was hard to see the characters as different ones than i had originally loved. the actual book only gets 4 stars due to trying to see it as a separate entity than the fanfic will seemed a bit of a pansy and a bit too perfect. the eve / will romance had the romantic tension but not a lot of spark. however gage and sky had enough passion to compensate. it was a unique change to see a romance of two drastically different couples in the same book .
we walked in here without a reservation on a sunday evening. there was a 30 to 60 minutes wait time. we then took a walk to the lover' s point to enjoyed the sunset. when we walked back to the restaurant we were right on time. i ordered the rockfish and my friend ordered another kind of fish (looked like salmon but it' s not, i have forgotten the name). they were both very delicious and spiced enough. no complain about the serving. we didn' t have any problems ordering food, refilling - water, getting bills, etc .
this has been at the top of my favorite movie list for at least 10 years. i am a registered nurse, and have taken care of people like the main character - numerous people. a horrible accident changes the main character' s life. but the part that sells me is that the caregiver' s life is transformed in a beautiful way in this movie, and i have personally seen the lives of nurses and aides be similarly transformed by having to care for people like the main character. my own life was. one person rated it poorly due to profanity, tobacco and a disappointing ending. in contrast, i felt this movie had a better ending than most movies i have ever watched. profanity and tobacco (and worse) are a regular part of this kind of health care - come down to planet earth, please. i have seen countless endings that were much worse in real life. most soap opera star types don' t make it through rehab so gracefully, or at all. most endings are much worse in reality. for someone like me, this is an absolutely beautiful movie, where everyone involved - the main character; her caregiver, and a high school admirer whom she can' t even recall for her arrogance all are better off. health care workers rarely get to see the passion fish side of the story, and i appreciated it immensely. only a person whose heart was in the wrong place could perceive this movie as having a bad ending .
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after an accident leaves her a paraplegic, a former soap opera star struggles to recover both emotionally and mentally, until she meets her newest nurse, who has struggles of her own .
lakeith stanfield and his sorry to bother you crew reveal their most soul - crushing jobs in our freewheeling interview .
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may - alice culhane was a successful soap opera star, but a car accident has left her bound to a wheelchair. she returns to her now - empty family home in the bayous of louisiana which she had eagerly left years before. she drinks heavily and vents her bitterness on the succession of nurses who are hired to take care of her and immediately quit because she is so unbearable. chantelle is the latest of these nurses, and may - alice is told that chantelle is the last nurse she' ll get. chantelle for reasons of her own, is also in a position where she badly needs the job to work out. the movie focuses on how these two women become friends and help each other heal emotionally .
has described this film as a probe of
what people do when they think they' re on one life path and then it gets blown in another direction
.
] it felt so strange. all i remember is that i wasn' t happy. was i ?
john sayles is a truly brilliant filmmaker. this film combines great story writing with precise interpersonal direction. both mary mcdonnel and alfre woodard deliver characters who develop clearly throughout the story. mr. sayles' depiction of cajun culture as it crosses with yankee cultures is really quite impressive. although the screenplay leans towards sentimentality, it never becomes trite as so many interpersonal dramas have a tendency to do. sayle' s scathing commentary on the self - centeredness of mainstream american culture through his depiction of people associated with daytime drama while avoiding any negative commentary on southern culture is refreshing and a pleasure to watch .
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her life is essentially going nowhere before her accident. she' s in a dead - end career, her marriage has ended, and she' s filled with a deep discontent. then she is paralyzed in an accident, and goes back home to louisiana to recover, filled with resentment .
the film stars mary mcdonnell as may - alice, a soap opera star whose life is suddenly changed by fate. she has some money and a home down in the bayou country, where her family is from, and after she finishes with rehabilitation therapy (where she is a very poor candidate), she goes back down there to sit in her chair and drink wine and harbor her bitterness .
she has enough money to hire a full - time companion, and she interviews several of them, all with a lot of problems of their own .
a couple are hired for varying lengths of time, before they are fired or walk off the job. she is not easy to work for, and she has just about reached the bottom of the local employment pool when chantelle, a black woman played by alfre woodard, arrives .
john sayles says he has been interested in such relationships between client and companion ever since he watched them develop in his own family. it is an interesting division of power: the companion is healthy and able - bodied, and has the freedom of movement. the client, like may - alice, has power over the sources of money, and can try to control the other person through threats to their economic security. so there is a delicate balance, a struggle, sometimes unacknowledged, that goes on all day .
sayles writes his own movies, which range from
eight men out
to
matewan
to the powerful
city of hope ,
and he has rarely written more three - dimensional characters than this time .
although his subject is a minefield of cliches and the material cries out to be processed into a disease - of - the - week docudrama, he creates vivid, original characters for his story - characters like uncle max (william mahoney), who comes to visit and reveals his entire lifetime in a few sentences, or may - alice' s childhood friends, or the actresses who worked with her on television .
each of these meetings between may - alice and her past requires her to play a different role, and that' s also the case when rennie (david strathairn) turns up one day to make some repairs on the house. this was the guy she had a crush on in high school, before she left him and all the rest of her early life behind and moved to new york. now he is married, and she is in a wheelchair, and it seems as if all possibilities of romance have disappeared. but things are not always as they seem .
at the heart of the movie is the uneasy relationship between may - alice and chantelle. may - alice is used to being willful and spoiled. chantelle does not find her behavior acceptable. but may - alice has the money and chantelle needs the job, for more urgent reasons than we first realize, and so it seems that chantelle may have to put up with may - alice' s behavior. yet in a deeper sense, one that only gradually reveals itself to may - alice, what she needs most of all from chantelle is the other woman' s ability to stand up to her .
there are elements here of a vaguely similar relationship in
driving miss daisy ,
but sayles has his own film, direct and original, and in the struggle of wills between these two characters he creates two of the most interesting human portraits of the year .
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the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
movies and tv shows are certified fresh with a steady tomatometer of 75% or higher after a set amount of reviews (80 for wide - release movies, 40 for limited - release movies, 20 for tv shows), including 5 reviews from top critics .
a tightly - focused narrative about interior struggles and unexpected changes, the film is a cynical anti - reagan story about monetary success and class distinctions, a political fable about female survivors .
the picture is sure - footed and accomplished and, to this point, the auteur' s most satisfying marriage of head and heart .
more for the ladies i think. not that i don' t appreciate a good film made for women but i found i couldn' t relate terribly well with the characters .
i really didn' t think i was going to like this film, and i ended up really liking it. and if i ever audition for anything, i' m totally using the
i didn' t ask for the anal probe
monologue too .
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stunned at first, may - alice soon develops a caustically bitter way of dealing with her frustration. she keeps to herself and drinks too much. she remains angry and proud. she mocks those who try to help her and, even more mercilessly, she mocks herself .
it' s important that we have clean walls ,
she snaps at one of the many nurses she employs briefly, then fires or scares away .
i' ll be climbing them soon .
when solicitous old friends come to visit, after may - alice has relocated to her girlhood home in louisiana, she is even worse .
didn' t we always say,' i wonder how may - alice is going to end up?'
asks one chatty, thoughtless matron who drops by. may - alice stares, drilling holes into her guest' s empty head .
well, now you know ,
she flatly replies .
as played memorably by ms. woodard, a quietly voluptuous actress who conveys vast inner strength, chantelle is willing to help may - alice only on her own terms, thus providing the kind of toughness and back talk her patient desperately needs .
have you been doing this long ?
may - alice asks chantelle curtly during their job interview .
no ,
chantelle answers .
you ?
if this situation sounds fraught with the danger of sentimentality, it certainly is. but mr. sayles' s writing and direction are refreshingly blunt, going over the top only when taking cheap shots at some of may - alice' s tiresome old friends. though the story is essentially house - bound, set in the soothing louisiana household as may - alice gradually re - establishes herself there, it manages to introduce a varied stream of visitors. collectively, they keep the film moving and prevent it from looking inward to a stultifying degree .
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equally helpful, on a different note, is marianne muellerleile as the scariest and most exacting in a long parade of unlucky nurses. the nurses' scenes are edited together in a funny, bad - audition type montage, during which one particularly pesty nurse insists on grilling may - alice about other stars (with character names like raven and dominique), whom she presumably knows from other soaps .
there' s not like a room where they store us all between shows ,
may - alice replies in exasperation .
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with the headline: review / film; physically paralyzed, but spiritually freed .
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soap actress may - alice culhane is paralyzed from the waist down in an accident. she returns to her old home in louisiana, where she proceeds to drink quite steadily and to drive away five personal attendants in the first twenty minutes of the movie. then she meets with chantelle, whose stubbornness matches her own - - if only because chantelle, herself a recovering cocaine addict, cannot afford to lose this job. their mutual dislike gradually develops into an armed truce as the two women deal with their own problems and with each others' .
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his light, bantering tone defuses the maudlin. he keeps mocking the very idea of soap opera, setting it up as the comic echo of his dramatic plot. may - alice' s weepy program is playing in the hospital when her private hell commences and later, the soap opera world keeps pursuing her, in the person of emissaries from her show. sayles keeps bringing in these cliche tv undercurrents, perhaps partially to let us know he won' t succumb .
otherwise, soap opera might seem the seedbed of this film' s dramatic personae: the movie' s small - town southern nerds running to the city; catty friends named precious; alcoholic gay cousins; dashing would - be lovers, errant daughters and stern fathers. by giving his tale the breezy veneer of romantic comedy, sayles signals his defiance of pop myth. he throws the focus back on the women, idealizes their toughness rather than their vulnerability .
as you' d expect from sayles, one of the most unabashedly left - wing american filmmakers to emerge in the' 80s, this is a film with a specific, diamond - hard political vision. it' s an anti - reagan - era story, cynical about seductive success, money and the inevitability and
cuteness
of class distinctions .
sayles gives us life after the dreams have died, shows us physical disability as only another territory, another border to be crossed .
his style stays tough and terse, and that attitude has dividends, especially for mcdonnell and woodard .
it' s a critical cliche to talk about oscar - worthy performances in the flood of year - end candidates, but woodard and mcdonnell deserve a look - - from everybody. in the movie, the two show us a developing love and respect that is subterranean, almost unspoken, seeping up beneath a contentious surface. they have the easy, emotion - stretching mastery and limber spontaneity that marks the best screen acting .
woodard gets all her character' s false insouciance, confusion, tenacity and sense of displacement and mcdonnell gets more. she plunges us into the horrific vertigo of a woman stripped of certitudes, falling into drunken self - indulgence and then fighting back up. mcdonnell got her screen debut in sayles' labor drama
matewan
and her breakthrough in the liberal western
dances with wolves ,
but she does her best screen acting here: pure as light, sharp and hard as a knife. there' s self - pity in the character, but never in the acting .
or in the movie. the women we see here aren' t in the worst possible situation. they' re living on a gorgeous stretch of lakefront property, with few pressing financial worries and some dashing men - - a local, married cajun boatman (david strathairn) and a roguish zydeco musician (vondie curtis - hall) to court them. but still, the romance has a harder edge .
a miramax film release. director / screenplay / editor john sayles. producers sarah green, maggie renzi. executive producer john sloss. cinematographer roger deakins. costumes cynthia flynt. music mason daring. production design dan bishop. running time: 2 hours, 16 minutes .
rick rhodes, 54; composer for soap operas and movies won ...
may - alice culhane (mcdonnell) is a successful soap opera star. her continued professional ascent is disrupted by a car accident that leaves her wheelchair - bound. to avoid scrutiny, she returns to her home town in louisiana - - a place she had fled without looking back. in her frustration, she begins drinking and lashing out at everyone, including the series of nurses hired to tend to her. now chantelle (woodward) has arrived and is insistent on getting may - alice sober. the film examines each woman' s relationships with the men in their lives – curtis - hall and strathairn - - as well as with each other .
soundtrack includes classics performed by a cajun music who' s who including the balfa brothers, and john delafose and the eunice playboys .
note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer (s) .
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after soap opera actress may - alice culhane (mary mcdonnell) has a car accident, she is paralyzed and forced into a wheelchair. she retreats to her family' s vacant home in louisiana and indulges in alcohol and self - pity. when nursing aides come to help, may - alice unleashes her anger, prompting each to quit. chantelle (alfre woodard), a nurse who desperately needs the job, arrives determined to change may - alice' s outlook. as the two women become friends, they help each other cope with challenges .
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passion fish is a 1992 american film written and directed by john sayles . the film stars mary mcdonnell , alfre woodard , vondie curtis-hall , david strathairn , leo burmester , and angela bassett . it tells the story of a soap opera star , paralyzed after being struck by a taxi , who is forced to return to her family home and rely upon a series of nurses , forcing each of them to leave her employment until one shows up guaranteed to stay . 
passion fish is a 1992 american film written and directed by john sayles. the film stars mary mcdonnell, alfre woodard, vondie curtis-hall, david strathairn, leo burmester, and angela bassett. it tells the story of a soap opera star, paralyzed after being struck by a taxi, who is forced to return to her family home and rely upon a series of nurses, forcing each of them to leave her employment until one shows up guaranteed to stay.
passion fish is a 1992 american film written and directed by john sayles. the film stars mary mcdonnell, alfre woodard, vondie curtis-hall, david strathairn, leo burmester, and angela bassett. it tells the story of a soap opera star, paralyzed after being struck by a taxi, who is forced to return to her family home and rely upon a series of nurses, forcing each of them to leave her employment until one shows up guaranteed to stay.