PASSIONADA ----------
The fishing community of New Bedford, Massachusetts is a little piece of Portugal in America. Here Celia Amonte (Sofia Milos, TV's "C.S.I.: Miami") raises her seventeen year old daughter Vicky (14 year old Emmy Rossum, "An American Rhapsody") in the two-family home of her mother-in-law Angelica (Lupe Ontiveros, "Real Women Have Curves") while still mourning the loss of her husband Joseph (Anthero Montenegro) seven years before. Vicky, under the already button-pushing guise of going out on Internet dates, has been gambling at a local casino where she meets card counter Charles Beck (Jason Isaacs, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"). When he coincidentally catches Vicky's mom singing fado in a local restaurant he and Vicky make a deal - he'll teach her to count cards in exchange for getting a date with her mom in "Passionada."
Because it is a love story set within a distinct ethnic community, "Passionada" is being compared to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," but this film is more rooted in realism than that Windex-infested sitcom. That said, while there are several good performances and a nice visual sense to the film, it suffers from an uneven story and characterizations.
Vicky, for example, is wonderfully played by Rossum, but we're given little idea just what drives her to become a card shark or whether any of the dates she talks about are real. She does reject local fisherman hunk Gianni (Chris Tardio, "Analyze That"), a guy any woman would go gaga over, because he 'smells like his catch' and convinces her 'very married' widowed mom to go on a blind date with Roberto (Russ Vigilante), a crude idiot even a stranger would recognize as a mismatch. The Jermanok brothers do give her some amusing dialogue, such as advising Charlie about her mom 'Fish. She's comfortable with fish.' Then she tells him 'You can't predict what I'll say, but you can predict I'll say it.'
Celia, on the other hand, one never doubts as a hard-working single mom fully focused on her teenage daughter. Sofia Milos gives her a sad-edged pragmatism and one believes Celia at least thinks she is content with what she once had. Milos is also convincing as a fado singer performing at the local Harbor House Restaurant (Portugal's contemporary fado singer Misia is heard on the soundtrack).
Charles Beck is given a pair of colorful and wealthy friends, Lois (Theresa Russell, "The Believer") and Danny Vargas (Seymour Cassel, "The Royal Tenenbaums"), whom we must presume are former scam partners. His pursuit of Celia is amusing, but Charlie is forced to carry a fake facade (he's got nothing, but borrows the Vargas's Jaguar, yacht and home and invents a fish processing business) to create third act conflict and it is carried on to a degree only seen in movies. Isaac has some nice chemistry with Milos, but he acts overly earnest when he must to win her back.
Mother-in-law Angelica is straight from the cliche book, a seemingly disapproving older woman who dispenses crowd-pleasing advice when it's 'least expected.' During New Bedford's annual Feast of the Blessed Sacrament, Angelica is swept onto the dance floor by local fish monger Anthony (Luis Colina, "The Crow: Salvation") in a clear play for tri-generational romance (Gianni has also succeeded in getting Vicky to spend some time with him here) that doesn't work because Colina appears to belong to Celia's age bracket.
Old pros Cassel and Russell are solid and hilarious support. Russell nimbly fixes her hubby a martini in a booth at the Shawmut Diner from a portable mini-bar (including cocktail shaker and olives) she apparently keeps on her person. She's in love with love and coaxes whomever she can to propel old friend Charlie's chances with Celia. Cassel is less wielding behind his ever present smile (and martini) and is most amusing posing as Charlie's employee on his own yacht.
Despite the uneven screenplay, director Dan Ireland ("The Whole Wide World") does a good job creating a specific type of life. Production designer John Frick ("Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams") gives New Bedford perhaps a quainter sheen than the blue collar fishing town really has, but it's nice to see the Amontes living in a real working class two-family house filled with flamenco dolls and other native bric-a-brac. Cinematographer Claudio Rocha ("The Whole Wide World") captures harbor activity during advantageous lighting times and deposits us into a festive crowd, but he shoots a seductive foodie scene like a menu card from Denny's with straight overhead shots of various Portuguese seafood dishes. Fortunately the romance the food inspires is more intimately shot.
"Passionada" is a romantic fish tale that could have used a little more finessing, but it's heartfelt and Milos and Rossum have a solid mother-daughter vibe.
C+
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