Passion Fish **** (1992, Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, Angela Bassett) – Classic Movie Review 6371

John Sayles won the first of his two Oscar nominations for Best Screenplay so far for Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996), though arguably Matewan (1987) is still probably Sayles’s best film to date and Piranha (story and screenplay) might be his most amusing.

He re-casts Mary McDonnell from Matewan this time as May-Alice Culhane, an embittered car-crash victim, a soap star now paralysed below the waist and confined to a wheelchair. She goes home to Louisiana, where she finds her equal in being difficult, her carer Chantelle, an African American woman from Chicago (Alfre Woodard).

However, this odd couple eventually join forces to oust unwanted guests, and then come to a delicately balanced understanding, possibly even becoming friends and helping each other to heal emotionally.

The outstanding acting, particularly from an ideally cast McDonnell, who was Oscar nominated as Best Actress, but also by Woodard, makes the most of Sayles’s clever and amusing screenplay in this good-natured, appealing film.

With Sayles doing his own editing, it is a bit lengthy, maybe, at 135 minutes, but it is one of the estimable Sayles’s best movies.

Also in the cast are Vondie Curtis-Hall, David Strathairn, Leo Burmester. Angela Bassett, Maggie Renzi and Norah Dunn. Sayles has a cameo as Doctor in Soap.

It is shot by Roger Deakins, produced by Sarah Green and Maggie Renzi, and scored by Mason Daring, with production design by Dan Bishop and Dianna Freas.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6371

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