Passion Fish

Mary McDonnell stars as May-Alice Culhane, a New York-based soap opera star who is paralyzed in a road accident. She returns to the Louisiana bayou where she grew up and becomes the patient from hell, discharging one caretaker after another. Then along comes Chantelle (Alfre Woodard), a take-no-sass nurse with her own issues to deal with. Together the women rediscover themselves and what it means to live within limitations. <br> <br> PASSION FISH comes after three "guy" films in a row for director John Sayles. His wife and longtime producer, Maggie Renzi, encouraged him to develop a script with female leads. Drawing upon his work as a hospital orderly in high school and college as well as Ingmar Bergman's seminal 1966 film PERSONA, Sayles created this script about the complexities of the caretaker-patient relationship--a relationship that has all the intimacy of a married couple and yet is motivated more by mutual need rather than love. PASSION FISH is languorously paced but pays dividends in many beau... Minimize