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Fried Green Tomatoes: Through visiting an elderly lady at a nursing home and listening to her stories, a middle-aged Southern women learns to take pride in her femininity and take control of her own life.
Country: USA, 1991
Original Language: English
Rating: 4.5/5
Zavi thinks: So, the one-line description of this movie makes it sound like it was meant to be a Lifetime movie for middle-aged married women. It’s not – this movie is simply very hard to summarize (though its seemingly innocent appeal made it the first queer movie I ever watched – and with my conservative parents at that). The one-line description, though technically the plot of this movie, is not the reason to watch “Fried Green Tomatoes.” This film makes the top ten list because of the queer love story that is framed within it – a tale of powerful love that overcomes all cultural and social obstacles. Mary Louise Parker is super hot in this film. So is her love interest. You have to watch it.
Panda thinks: I love this movie. Love it. Mary Louise Parker (MLP) plays the role of Ruth like she was born to be nothing other than a beautiful, kind Southern lady capable of stealing the heart of everyone she meets. This movie makes me homesick and MLP is so perfect in it it makes my head spin. That being said, as Zavi mentioned, this is the “not-quite-lesbonic” lesbian classic. Fannie Flagg, the author of “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe”, wrote the story exactly as we see it (a tale of intrigue and lesbian romance), but it was “sanitized” by mainstream Hollywood. MLP said the following an interview with After Ellen when asked if she wished “Fried Green Tomatoes” had gone a little more gay:
Yes! Well, in some ways I do. I tried to make it a little bit more articulated at the time, but they didn’t really want to go that way. And in some ways I wish that it was, and then in some ways I think maybe the audience wouldn’t have gone there, so I don’t know — I have very mixed feelings about it. Because I tried — I really tried to push it at the time, and they didn’t want to go there with me.
What it boils down to is the studio (directors, producers, etc.) just did not want to go gay with Mary Louise Parker–and that is their own damn mistake. As my momma would say, they ain’t got the good sense God gave a steaming pile of you know what. Regardless, the sexual tension between MLP and her tomboy co-star is palpable and “Fried Green Tomatoes” is a classic film, no matter which way you look at it. I also highly recommend the book it was based upon.
