Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)

Directed by Jon Avnet. Starring Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker, Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Gary Basaraba, Gailard Sartain, Cicely Tyson, Stan Shaw, Chris O’Donnell, Tim Scott, Richard Riehle, Nick Searcy, Raynor Scheine. [PG-13]

While visiting her husband’s aunt in a nursing home, dissatisfied housewife Bates makes the acquaintance of an elderly woman (Tandy) who tells her a Depression-era story of racial hostility, spousal abuse, murder, and the intimate “friendship” between Masterson and Parker. The dominant flashback storyline is conventional and predictable and succumbs to cheap tearjerking tactics by the end, but is still far and away the more engaging aspect of the film; the contemporary framing sequences are well-acted by Tandy and Bates (despite the latter being a caricature that develops into a different caricature), but are also cutesy and obvious. Film coasts on the appeal of the leading ladies and their friendships, as well as its universal message grilled in barbecue-scented nostalgia. Directorial debut for Avnet; based on a novel by Fannie Flagg.

61/100