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Written by: Fannie Flagg (novel), Fannie Flagg and Carol Sobieski (screenplay)
Directed by: Jon Avnet
Starring: Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker, Cicely Tyson, Chris O'Donnell
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
Evelyn, an ordinary housewife, visits a nursing home and befriends the old lady Ninny. Together, they bond over stories from the past about two intrepid women of Whistle Stop Cafe.
Verdict
It's nice, which is good and bad. It explores an enduring friendship and a stale marriage and implies even more. The core of the movie are two lifelong friends, but the movie sidesteps the exact nature of their relationship. I'd guess that's due to culture at the time. Absent that, this is too bland. A housewife gains the confidence to begin living life due to these stories, but that story is clumsy.
It depends.
Review
Evelyn (Kathy Bates) meets Ninny (Jessica Tandy), who starts telling stories about her past. That's the start of their friendship.
Evelyn makes various attempts to fix her marriage, but it's clear the problem with her marriage is her husband. He doesn't see anything wrong with the marriage. Why would he, she provides everything and does all the labor around the house. She'd like a partner or just acknowledgement, but it doesn't come. More predominant then than now, but 'fixing' a marriage is completely on the woman. Part of that is Evelyn is a house wife with no prospects. It's sad. She tries all this self improvement, but for what? It's not for her, it's for a husband that doesn't care. He's content to drink beer and watch baseball. Seems like she'd be better off without him.
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| Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy play Evelyn, Ninny |
This cuts back and forth between present and past. Ninny's stories center on Idgie (Mary Stuart Masterson) and Ruth (Mary-Louise Parker). They're a bit of country and city mouse, cousins linked by tragedy. Idgie is a tomboy, rejecting society. It certainly seems like an implication, one of those things Idgie couldn't make public back then about her preferences.
Ruth's husband Frank is terrible. He beats her in front of people, even kicking her down the stairs. What does he do in private? Why didn't the two guys that witness it do anything? Why didn't Idgie make him regret that immediately? If we couldn't already tell that Frank was bad, he's also a member of a racist organization.
Idgie helps Ruth flee, and they start a restaurant. Their resolve inspires Evelyn to get a job and work on herself instead of a marriage. There's one scene where two young women steal her parking space. Everyone knows that feeling, but you can't act like that and ram your car into theirs repeatedly. It wants to be one of those cathartic moments, but it really awkwardly shows how Evelyn is changing.
I like the idea of empowerment, but I'm not sure the exact result is right. Evelyn seems wild, ramming cars and knocking down walls with a sledgehammer. It gets the point across, but it's cartoonish. I appreciate she finally calls out her husband. He's done nothing to improve the marriage.
Ninny tells a lot of stories like she was there, but she never appears in the stories. If she was, she should have made an appearance. Is she Idgie? In her room are pictures of Idgie and Ruth, and just them. The other side of this is that it's just a movie and it forgot to tie up all the loose end or wanted to leave us with something open ended.
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