Fried Green Tomatoes
From AwardAnnals
| This creative work has a long or truncated description. Please review the creative work guidelines concerning descriptions and edit down or replace the description. |
 | |
| Director(s) | Jon Avnet |
|---|---|
| Distributor | Universal Studios |
| Honors | |
| Kathy Bates stars as an unhappy wife trying to get her husband’s attention in this amusing and moving 1991 screen adaptation of Fannie Flagg’s novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. After befriending a lonely old woman (Jessica Tandy), Bates hears the story of a lifelong friendship between two other women (Mary Stuary Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker, seen in flashback) who once ran a cafe in town against many personal odds. The tale inspires Bates to take further command over her life, and there director Jon Avnet… | |
Reviews
Amazon.com
Kathy Bates stars as an unhappy wife trying to get her husband’s attention in this amusing and moving 1991 screen adaptation of Fannie Flagg’s novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. After befriending a lonely old woman (Jessica Tandy), Bates hears the story of a lifelong friendship between two other women (Mary Stuary Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker, seen in flashback) who once ran a cafe in town against many personal odds. The tale inspires Bates to take further command over her life, and there director Jon Avnet (Up Close and Personal), in his first feature, has fun with the film. Bates develops a real attitude toward her thickheaded spouse at home and some uppity girls in a parking lot, but dignity is generally the key to Avnet’s approach with the story’s crucial relationships. Tandy is a joy and clearly loves the element of mystery attached to her character, and Masterson and Parker are excellent in the historical sequences. —Tom Keogh
Barnes and Noble
The very model of the contemporary “chick flick,” Fried Green Tomatoes still ranks among the best of the breed. Adapted from her bestselling novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, Fanny Flagg’s screenplay expertly evokes the 1920s in the Deep South while drawing a vivid picture of female resourcefulness and fortitude. Skillfully slipping in and out of time periods, the dual story unfolds as dowdy, unhappily married Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates), begins visiting a nursing home to chat with Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy). The still sprightly Ninny, a former resident of Whistle Stop, Alabama, tells Evelyn about a young woman named Ruth Jamison (Mary-Louise Parker), who operated the book’s titular café, which specialized in breaded fried green tomatoes. Married to a loutish redneck, Ruth grew much closer to her friend Idgie Threadgoode (Mary Stuart Masterson), her partner in the café. The flashback sequences to the 1920s describe Whistle Stop’s racial tensions, which bubble over into violence when Ruth’s no-account husband disappears and is presumed to have been murdered by a black man named Big George (Stan Shaw). Less specifically described, but clearly inferred, is a lesbian relationship between Ruth and Idgie. Director Jon Avnet elicits terrific performances from Parker and Masterson, who were then near the beginning of their careers. Avnet sensitively portrays Flagg’s underlying subject—a narrow-minded society’s response to nonconformity—without wallowing in sentimentality or preachiness. The result is an uplifting movie that wins new fans with every screening. Ed Hulse
Find this film
Related works
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe
She’s one of America’s fairest and funniest ladies. Actress and screenwriter, director and comedienne, Fannie Flagg is also a most accomplished and high-spirited author. Said Kirkus of her first book, Coming Attractions: “It’s subtitled ‘A wonderful novel’ and that’s exactly what it is.” Here is her second. Get ready, because it’s going to make you laugh (a lot), cry (a little), and care (forever).What is it? It’s first the story of two women in the 1980s, of gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump…
