Barnes & Noble

The very model of the contemporary "chick flick," Fried Green Tomatoes still ranks among the best of the breed. Adapted from her bestselling novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, Fanny Flagg's screenplay expertly evokes the 1920s in the Deep South while drawing a vivid picture of female resourcefulness and fortitude. Skillfully slipping in and out of time periods, the dual story unfolds as dowdy, unhappily married Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates), begins visiting a nursing home to chat with Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy). The still sprightly Ninny, a former resident of Whistle Stop, Alabama, tells Evelyn about a young woman named Ruth Jamison (Mary-Louise Parker), who operated the book's titular café, which specialized in breaded fried green tomatoes. Married to a loutish redneck, Ruth grew much closer to her friend Idgie Threadgoode (Mary Stuart Masterson), her partner in the café. The flashback sequences to the 1920s describe Whistle Stop's racial tensions, which bubble over into violence when Ruth's no-account husband disappears and is presumed to have been murdered by a black man named Big George (Stan Shaw). Less specifically described, but clearly inferred, is a lesbian relationship between Ruth and Idgie. Director Jon Avnet elicits terrific performances from Parker and Masterson, who were then near the beginning of their careers. Avnet sensitively portrays Flagg's underlying subject -- a narrow-minded society's response to nonconformity -- without wallowing in sentimentality or preachiness. The result is an uplifting movie that wins new fans with every screening. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

A woman learns the value of friendship as she hears the story of two women and how their friendship shaped their lives in this warm comedy-drama. Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) is an emotionally repressed housewife with a habit of drowning her sorrows in candy bars. Her husband Ed (Gailard Sartain) barely acknowledges her existence, and while he visits his aunt at a nursing home every week, Evelyn is not permitted to come into the room because the old women doesn't like her. One week, while waiting out Ed's visit, Evelyn meets Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy), a frail but feisty old woman who lives at the same nursing home and loves to tell stories. Over the span of several weeks, she spins a whopper about one of her relatives, Idgie (Mary Stuart Masterson). Back in the 1920s, Idgie was a sweet but fiercely independent woman with her own way of doing things who ran the town diner in Whistle Stop, Alabama. Idgie was very close to her brother Buddy (Chris O'Donnell), and when he died, she wouldn't talk to anyone except Buddy's girl, Ruth Jamison (Mary-Louise Parker). Idgie gave Ruth a job at the cafe after she left her abusive husband, Frank Bennett (Nick Searcy). Between her habit of standing up for herself, standing up to Frank, and serving food to Black people out the back of the diner, Idgie raised the ire of the less tolerant citizens of Whistle Stop, and when Frank mysteriously disappeared, many locals suspected that Idgie, Ruth, and their friends may have been responsible. Evelyn finds herself looking forward to her weekly visits with Ninny, and is inspired by her story to take a new pride in herself and assert her independence from Ed. Fried Green Tomatoes was based on the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by actress-turned-author Fannie Flagg, who makes a cameo appearance as the leader of a self-help group. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 025192055195
• Source: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Language: English
• Editions: Special Edition, Special Packaging
• Sales Rank: 8,791