Passion Fish

Soap opera star May-Alice is left paralyzed after an accident and returns to her detested family home in the Louisiana bayous. She drinks heavily and sends a bevy of nurses running, until she meets Chantelle who, with troubles of her own, can’t turn down the job., Realistic drama about two very different women who are drawn together by circumstance. Crippled in a car crash, ex-soap opera queen May-Alice retreats to her childhood home in the Deep South to convalesce, but she has trouble choosing her home help. Then no-nonsense Chantelle arrives to bring some equilibrium to May-Alice’s life, and together the women find the strength they need to face the world., John Sayles’ film stars Mary McDonnell as a fading soap-star crippled by an accident who needs a live in nurse but is so intolerant that few stay more than a few days – until Alfre Woodard, who has her own reasons for sticking to a steady job, takes up the post., Oscar nominated emotional drama starring Mary McDonnell as a successful soap opera star, who is left disabled after a near-fatal car accident., John Sayles’ immediate and unsentimental tale of growing respect and affection between a paraplegic and her straight-talking nurse stars Mary McDonnell as soap-opera actress Mary-Alice Culhane. After an automobile accident, she discovers herself paralyzed in a hospital bed. Sinking into depression, Mary-Alice rages against the other patients and the medical staff. Eager to be rid of her, the doctors allow her to leave the hospital and return to her girlhood home in the Louisiana bayou. Back home, Mary-Alice frightens off a succession of home-care nurses until a young black woman named Chantelle (Alfre Woodard) arrives to give the job a try. Chantelle is as strong-willed as Mary-Alice, and they constantly clash until Mary-Alice begins to soften a bit. Chantelle then discovers Mary-Alice is a recovering drug addict. Since Mary-Alice has sunken into alcoholism under the weight of her paralysis, they form a common link that binds them together. When visitors begin to come around — particularly Rennie (David Straithairn) for Mary-Alice and local cowboy Sugar LeDoux (Vondie Curtis-Hall) for Chantelle — the women realize they must learn to overcome their distrust of people and give a little of themselves to get a bit closer.