Passionada

"Passionada" is a very light and enjoyable film. But the story has been done a million times over by Hollywood and on TV. It's the typical tale of a worldly, WASPy guy who meets and romances an ethnic, family-devoted girl. You just knew that there would be a clash of cultures and an eventual break-up. She would undoubtedly tempt her guy with ethnic food, dance and song, and even sensual sex. And he would tempt her with excitement, luxuries, and new adventures that only a man from outside her world could promise her. Sound familiar? Some people here complained about the lack of authenticity due to the director using non-Portuguese actors and Brazilian music. I don't think it made any difference. The acting and music and shots of the locale were very authentic and first-rate. The only thing that I couldn't figure out was all the casino scenes, since there are no casinos in New Bedford, Mass. The nearest ones are Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods in Conn., over an hour away. And Vicky, the young daughter, drove her scooter all the way over there and back on school nights? And if Charlie was such a professional card counter at Blackjack, banned from every casino, why was he broke? I must've missed something during a bathroom break. Other than that, "Passionada" is a fun film and a good insight into Portuguese-American culture, if that's your thing.

"Passionada" is all about Milos as a beautiful Portuguese widow and cabaret singer who mourns the loss of her fisherman husband while her daughter and gambling prodigy Rossum consorts with professional card player Issacs to get good old mom out of her funk. The result is a beautifully shot film with marginally interesting characters and an uneventful story which spends most of its time with Issacs courting a reluctant Milos with his English accent and glib patter. The film wanders somewhere between romantic drama and romantic comedy not taking a firm position thereby diluting its ability to be engaging in either genre. Nonetheless, romantics and sentimentalists will appreciate this languorous but pretty film with a cosmopolitan flavor. (B-)

Dear IMDb,

The lead review you have on the site -- Straight To TV Land -- is

outdated and misleading; the film has an entirely new ending that is not

relevant to these comments. The film was also significantly re-edited

since the test screening that this review relates to. Just read the

other comments on the site and you will see. Please, let this review sit

at the end where it belongs as it is about a movie that is no longer the

movie this gentleman is writing about.

Dan Ireland, Director, Passionada .......

Passionada (2002), directed by Dan Ireland, is a love story that will either fascinate or frustrate you. Some have called Passionada formulaic, and the film certainly begins with boy meets girl and continues from there, but I bought into the film and the love story, and I enjoyed the movie.

Although the basic plot is not subtle, the sense of the Portuguese ethnic community in New Bedford is well portrayed, and the singing of fado--central to the story--is wonderful. (The young fadista Misia provides the fado singing for Sofia Milos--the film is worth seeing for the music alone.)

Sofia Milos portrays a beautiful young widow. Much is made of the fact that she doesn't look old enough to be the mother of Emmy Rossum, who was 16 when the movie was filmed. Actually, Milos could be the mother of a 16-year-old, but she's so youthful and attractive that it's hard to think of her as the somewhat older and wiser woman she's supposed to be portraying.

Anyway, who cares? If you want to see a movie with gritty realism about the hardships of widowhood or the fishing industry, see a different film. If you want to see a love story set in scenic New Bedford, and accompanied by the fado, see Passionada.

Charlie (Jason Isaac) is a card player of dubious luck, who lives in a cheap motel and is going nowhere until he meets and woos a conservative and beautiful Portugese seamstress/singer, Celia, played by the stunning Sofia Milos (CSI: Miami). Celia has a meddlesome teenage daughter, Vickie (Emmy Rossum) who wants to learn how to count cards by blackmailing Charlie into teaching her, but he is banned from all casinos. Vickie wants to hook her mother up with a new man but her computer dating schemes fail. In the meanwhile, Charlie's only friends, a wealthy couple, Lois (Theresa Russell) and Danny Vargas (Seymore Cassel), lend him their Jaguar XKE, sailboat, and home to impress the widow that he is a successful and wealthy entrepreneur. It sounds like a typical dating game setup except for the background settings of the Portugese fishing community, mouthwatering seafood cooking, and casino gaming that flesh out the story. Love, fish, and lying to make points with the mother, Charlie learns how to turn his life around the hard way through his deceptions which backfire, and Sofia tries to forget the husband whose death has left her prematurely widowed yet not dead from the neck down.

Through the interferences of Vickie, lots of fish as unlikely props, and a sappy storyline, this is an entertaining film which allows the wonderful character actor Jason Isaac to show another side to his already powerful acting chops. Emmy Rossum is adequately irritating in a pre-Phantom of the Opera role which suggests her growth from typical teen to ingénue in training. However, it is the vibrant Sofia Milos as Celia who gives a rounded performance from cloistered widow to sensuous nightclub chanteuse that surprises and delights.

This is a small story about love in all its forms and definitions. Thoroughly enjoyable and wonderful for a date nite or simply rainy day, Passionada entertains.