Passionada (2002)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Dan Ireland

Writers:

David Bakalar (story)
Jim Jermanok (screenplay) ...

Genre:

Comedy | Romance | Drama

Tagline:

Vicky wants what's best for her mother. Charlie's close enough.

Plot:

The film is a romantic comedy about a Portuguese widow whose husband had been a fisherman who died at sea...

Cast

Jason Isaacs	...	Charles Beck
Sofia Milos	...	Celia Amonte
Emmy Rossum	...	Vicky Amonte
Theresa Russell	...	Lois Vargas
Lupe Ontiveros	...	Angelica Amonte
Seymour Cassel	...	Daniel Vargas
Chris Tardio	...	Gianni Martinez
Benjamin Mouton	...	Frankie the Pit Boss
Robert Montano	...	Father Emmanuel
Luis Colina	...	Anthony
Bill Burr	...	Blackjack Player
Russ Vigilante	...	Roberto
Anthero Montenegro	...	Joseph Amonte
George Gund	...	Fisherman
Shawn Fitzgerald	...	Blackjack Dealer

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some sensuality and a conversation about drugs.

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Portuguese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Germany:o.Al. | Sweden:Btl | UK:PG | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Dartmouth, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Sandyo Productions

Trivia:

The DVD includes two deleted scenes: a dance scene showing Vicky in a club an alternate ending in which Charly goes to play Poker with Russian gangsters and gets beaten up for cheating and saving Vicky (who was searching for Charly)

Goofs:

Factual errors: Most of the Portuguese ethnic and cultural references - except the 'Fado' songs (by Mísia) - are flawed: - the title is not correct - in Portuguese it would be "Apaixonada". - none of the character's names are typically Portuguese (Celia, Amonte, Angelica, Gianni Martinez) - Celia prepares a Spanish Paella for Jason - at the street parade, the song is not the Portuguese folk-song the people are dancing on the background - the dance scene is under the spell of a Brazilian Soft-Samba. - "Granny" in Portuguese is "Vovó"

Quotes:

Vicky: You really like my ma, don't you?
[Charlie nods]
Vicky: Course you like my ma. She's the best and she deserves better than she's got!

A Delicious Romance

In a Portuguese fishing colony, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the widow singer of "Fado" Célia Amonte (Sofia Milos) has been grieving the death of her beloved fisherman husband for seven years. She lives with her teenager daughter Vicky (Emmy Rossum), and her mother-in-law is her neighbor next door. The English gambler Charles Beck, who is spending some days with his wealthy friends Daniel Vargas (Seymour Cassel) and Lois (Theresa Russell), falls in love with her, and lies about his past to conquer the love of Célia. "Passionada" is a nice romance. Indeed, it is literally a delicious romance, with many Portuguese and Spanish dishes, which made me feel hungry. The story is predictable, but a great entertainment, and the cast is very attractive. I glanced some reviews in IMDb, and I really found very funny comments. First of all, the Portuguese spoken along the movie is from Portugal. There is a joker, who wrote that the accent was from Brazil, but only the Portuguese people who live in Brazil has that accent (just in time, my grandmother was Portuguese and I am Brazilian, so I can tell about accents). I do not know Spanish, but "Passionada" is neither a Portuguese nor an English word. I believe that it might be a combination of the English word "Passion" (from Charles Beck, the English card player) with "Apaixonada" (from Portuguese, meaning in love), with the author playing with words. Célia prepares many dishes of fish and seafood for Charles, and she has never mentioned that they are Portuguese dishes (inclusive one of them is from Mozambique). There are dozens of ways of preparing "bacalhau" (codfish), and not only oven-made, and the "bolinhos de bacalhau" (codfish cakes) are perfect. Indeed, Paella is a typical Spanish dish, but her intention is to show Charles different meals she was able to cook. In accordance with IMDb information, Sofia Milos was born in Zurich, Switzerland, and not in Greece. At the street parade, the song is sang with the Portuguese of Portugal accent. The song, when they dance is "A Felicidade", a Brazilian "bossa nova" of Vinicious de Morais and Tom Jobim (it is not a "samba", or "soft???-samba"). It is amazing the number of nonsense I read about this movie in IMDb. The alternative end is horrible and fortunately was deleted. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): This DVD is not available in Brazil.