Fried Green Tomatoes

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

 

Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) shows women battling those that try to keep them in subservient positions, sometimes through physical abuse. What is different about this film is that it deals with two different time periods and shows how the earlier era helps empower a female in the later time frame. The movie also focuses on racial bigotry and age discrimination. Fiction (this movie is based on a novel by comedian Fannie Flagg) set in the South often has a gothic feel, sometimes presenting the supernatural, or at least dealing with the darker side of human nature. This movie certainly does the latter.

 

The opening shot of an early model car being fished out of a river establishes that what is happening took place in the past. The image is accompanied by the other-worldly music of a single clarinet which delivers feelings of mystery and danger, sort of the way the music works in another Southern gothic-type tale, To Kill a Mockingbird. As the credits roll, so do train wheels, and they move quickly over rails. Trains play a role in the plot, but the image also is one of movement that acts as a transition to current events as a dilapidated town is displayed. There is an empty building with a worn sign that says, “Whistle Stop Cafe,” which is located next to train tracks. Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) sits in a car while her husband, Ed (Gailard Sartain) talks on a public telephone. (The name “Couch” suggests someone who is inactive, as opposed to the swiftness of a locomotive, and this tale is very much about Evelyn getting off a comfortable but stagnant spot and going on a personal journey). The portly Evelyn, which also implies being weighed down into passivity, stares at the old menu painted on the closed restaurant, takes out a candy bar, and starts chewing on it. She hears a train whistle and an engine chugging but there is nothing visible on the tracks. The camera moves along as if there is something passing through. There is a faint reflection of cars passing by in the windows of the defunct cafe, and the leaves on the ground blow away from the tracks. This ghostly suggestion fits in with a gothic story and adds to the merging of the past with the present. 

 

Evelyn gave Ed wrong directions, and she sheepishly smiles, acknowledging her mistake. She is lost in many ways at the start of the movie, and is the passive one in her marriage. They eventually get to the nursing home in Alabama where Ed’s aunt resides. She is ill-tempered toward Evelyn, who leaves Ed with her as Evelyn wanders off. She meets “Ninny” Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy), one of the residents, and it winds up changing Evelyn’s life. (Ninny’s last name suggests that she weaves a silver lining into the tapestry of Evelyn’s life). 

 

Ninny is a frank woman and starts the conversation by talking about having her gallbladder removed and needing a fleet enema. Her subject matter is not what the genteel women of the South usually engage in and is not what Evelyn is used to hearing. Ninny, who is from Whistle Stop, is not in need of skilled medical care but is the roommate of her friend, Mrs. Otis, and states she will leave when Mrs. Otis settles in. Ninny then abruptly mentions Imogene “Idgie” Threadgoode, and says she married her brother, Cleo. Idgie and Ruth Jamison ran the Whistle Stop Café. The coincidence of Evelyn getting lost (leading to her finding herself) at Whistle Stop right near the café and then learning about it right afterwards suggests fate is playing a role. 

 

Ninny says that Idgie was a bit wild but then adds that she can’t believe anyone would think Idgie “murdered that man.” Her line piques Evelyn’s and our interest and meshes with the opening shot of the car that suggests dire events. It also propels us into the narrative set in the past as the excellent storyteller Ninny recounts what happened. 

 Ninny says that Idgie was arrested for killing Frank Bennett, but then backtracks to when Idgie was young and played with her brother, Buddy (Chris O’Donnell) right after WWI. On the day of the wedding of her sister, Leona (Afton Smith), little Idgie (Nancy Moore Atchison) is wearing a dress. But, as she lifts her hem to walk down the stairs, scraped knees are visible, implying that Idgie is more of a Tomboy and wearing the traditional clothes of a female does not suit her. She immediately gets into a fight with the teasing young Julian Threadgoode (Reid Binion). She climbs to her treehouse and begins to shed the dress. Buddy tells stories and relates one about ducks getting their feet frozen in a nearby lake and flying off with the body of water to Georgia. He is able to charm his little sister. Idgie goes to the wedding but wears a jacket and tie showing her early rebelliousness against imposed gender roles. 

 

Ninny mentions how she had a big “crush” on the likable Buddy, who all the girls fancied. Buddy, however, was interested in Ruth (Mary-Louise Parker), who was a daughter of a friend of his mother. On the day of the wedding, Idgie, Ruth and Buddy go strolling and he tells the story about the ducks. This fairytale delights Idgie and Ruth, and is repeated in the film, adding an element of fantasy to the reality. 

 But the idyllic time the three share on that day is undercut when Buddy goes after Ruth’s hat that flies away in the wind. It winds up on those train tracks, which symbolize how life has good and bad changes in store as it passes through time. The two girls laugh as the hat keeps escaping out of Buddy’s reach, but this whimsical scene abruptly turns deadly as Buddy’s shoe gets caught in between the rails. We hear that whistle in the distance, a real one this time, and a speeding locomotive barrels down on where Buddy is trapped and kills the young man. 

 Idgie was so traumatized by the death of her brother that she exiled herself near the short waterfalls where she, Ruth and Buddy walked. As time passed, she became even more of an outsider to acceptable society. She only allowed Big George (Stan Shaw), the African American family worker, to be her friend, which in the South was rebellious in itself. He acted like a guardian angel as “he watched over her night and day.” The grownup Idgie (Mary Stuart Masterson) would stay away from home mostly and only Big George knew where she was.

 

Evelyn attends meetings to put “magic” and “spark” back in her marriage (the moderator is the author, Fannie Flagg), implying that society has left it up to her as the wife to revive the relationship, relieving the husband of all responsibility. Evelyn imagines herself wrapped in cellophane to greet Ed when he enters their house. The music playing in her head asks, “what’s become of the broken-hearted,” which implies her plan does not have a good chance for success. She imagines Ed’s response would be that she is insane. She can’t even have a romantic fantasy without it being doomed to failure. Her friend Missy (Constance Shulman) says instead of this useless group, they need, “an assertiveness training class for Southern women,” which she then admits, “that’s a contradiction in terms.” The stress here is that Southern women are taught to be submissive.

 

The next scene emphasizes the above fact as Evelyn waits at the door with beer in hand as her husband rushes through the house so he can eat in front of the TV while watching a ballgame. His only words to her are to ask her to not block his view. He confirms what she predicted when she asks what he would have thought if she greeted him only wearing cellophane. He says he would be checking her into the “looney bin.”

 

Evelyn is relegated to the waiting room again at the nursing home when they visit Ed’s aunt on Halloween (another gothic reference). Ninny sees her and the older woman mentions how smells bring back memories. Again there is that ethereal music that brings us back to the ghosts of the past as Ninny recalls eating fried green tomatoes at the cafe. Ninny says that Idgie, on a rare visit home, met Frank Bennett (Nick Searcy), and he is overly complimentary. She says her name is “Towanda,” which reflects her mythical warrior-woman persona, and says to Frank, “You a politician, or does lying just run in your family?” She sizes him up right away and the exchange shows how she is not willing to comply with playing the Southern hospitality game. 

 Mama (Lois Smith) and the family servant, Sipsey (Cicely Tyson), accept Idgie’s gift of caught fish which emphasizes Idgie’s self-reliant abilities, showing how she can exist without the presence of a man. Mama asked Ruth to spend the summer with them, hoping Ruth could connect with Idgie and bring her back to the family. But, Idgie was a renegade before Buddy’s death, and it is Idgie that draws out the courageous woman inside the meek-appearing Ruth. Ruth goes to The River Club which Big George warns does not have “church-going” people there. But Ruth feels it's her duty to reach out to Idgie, who is playing cards with Grady Kilgore (Gary Basaraba), the hulky local sheriff. Ruth brazenly grabs Idgie’s money and says Idgie must go home to her family. Ruth tells Idgie that she is being self-centered in her grief concerning Buddy, since they all lost him, and she shouldn’t turn her back on the family that loves her. But Idgie says that she goes where she wants to go, so Ruth’s argument concerning submission to Mama’s request is rejected.

 

Reverend Scroggins (Richard Riehle) gives a sermon about how evil lurks in places like the River Club, which he calls “a den of the devil,” because it has alcohol, gambling, and “sin,” in general. He equates Satan with serpents and while he speaks, the irreverent Idgie rides by, disrupting the status quo, saying Scroggins resembles a serpent himself. The reverend stresses to his congregation that evil can take a pleasing shape, implying the congregation shouldn’t be taken in by the pretty Idgie. Although these two are combative, Scroggins believes in justice and is not above bending the rules to see that fairness triumphs later in the story.

 

Ruth persists in trying to be Idgie’s friend and begs for a chance to have fun together. Idgie’s idea of fun is not what Ruth had in mind. Idgie takes her to, where else, a train, which has cans and bags of food in one of the cars. This time its movement shows it to be a vehicle for good as it allows the two women to aid the poor people on the roadside as they toss food to them. Even though they are giving away what doesn’t belong to them, they are like angels dispensing hope to the underprivileged. So, Ruth’s participation in Idgie’s Robin Hood-like adventure turns her into an outlaw, but she enjoys the role as she sees the smiling faces of hungry children running near the train so that they can get something to eat. Idgie points out that the high-minded churchgoers are hypocrites because they go to the River Club. The implication is that they pretend to be Christians but do no acts of kindness for the needy. When the time comes to jump off the train, Ruth thinks Idgie is crazy for suggesting it. But, when Idgie says to Ruth she will never jump off, implying she doesn’t have the courage to be daring, Ruth’s hidden strength surfaces. She says to Idgie, “Don’t you ever say never to me.” Ruth is the first to jump and she comes out unscathed while it is Idgie who hurts her ankle. Ruth tells her that she will help her walk. So, Ruth, through her association with Idgie, becomes the strong one in a reversal of roles.

 In an acknowledgement of Ruth showing her daring side, Idgie now demonstrates her strong will in order to reward Ruth. Idgie takes Ruth into a field where there is a huge beehive in a tree. She reaches in, grabs a chunk of honey, and puts it in a jar (she earlier brought a jar of honey to Buddy’s grave), and gives it as a gift to Ruth. The bees swarm around and land on her, but she assures the concerned Ruth she never gets stung. (There are no special effects or a stand-in as Mary Stuart Masterson did the scene herself). This incident adds another element of the supernatural as the astonished Ruth says to Idgie, “You’re just a bee charmer, Idgie Threadgoode, that’s what you are, a bee charmer.” Idgie is more one with the cosmic power of nature than she is connected to other people.

 Ruth’s friendship does bring Idgie back to having more contact with her family. Ruth is teaching religious classes to children for Reverend Scroggins. She is telling the youngsters about Job. The Bible story seems to fit what happens to people in the movie as they suffer many tribulations. Idgie is smiling as she looks at Ruth through a window, which stresses her outsider status. The next scene contrasts with the previous church setting since it takes place at The River Club, which Scroggins condemned as a place of sin. They are celebrating Ruth’s birthday and she gets drunk and plays poker and baseball for the first time with Grady, Idgie, and others. The two women are dripping wet after taking a dip in the river, and there is a sensual feel to the images. Ruth says that it’s the best birthday she ever had and declares that she never had more fun. Then she kisses Idgie on the cheek. The novel has a lesbian connection between Idgie and Ruth, but the film only hints at intimacy between the two. 

 

Idgie tells Ruth not to concern herself about getting drunk and worrying what other people think. Idgie wants to open up a whole new world of enjoyment for Ruth. Idgie tells Ruth she has only done what was expected of her, teaching Sunday school, taking care of her father before he died, and will be doing the same for her ailing mother. Ruth then surprises Idgie when she says, “and I’m gonna marry the man I’m supposed to.” Ninny narrates that Ruth married Frank Bennett, but Idgie didn’t go to the wedding, which shows some jealousy and possibly that Idgie felt that she and Ruth didn’t need men in their lives to be happy as long as they had each other. Idgie was so upset that she “swore that she would never see Ruth again.”

 

Evelyn continues to go to groups to find some satisfaction in her life. One meeting addresses female empowerment and the instructor says the women present are to explore their “own femaleness” by using mirrors to examine the “source” of their “strength” and “separateness,” their “vaginas.” This exercise is so shocking to Evelyn’s Southern temperament, she almost falls out of her chair. She says she can’t just slip off her panties because she is wearing a girdle. It is a funny scene, but it also points to how her society has put Evelyn physically and literally in restraints. The room in which the meeting takes place looks like a man cave, with animals and fish mounted on the walls and a dartboard on the door. It’s as if the macho male-dominated culture which surrounds women is difficult to escape.

 

Evelyn still tries to win her husband over with a nice dinner, but he comes in wearing baseball clothes (another testosterone-fueled image) and takes his meal again to the chair to watch a game on the TV. Evelyn says with their son on his own they can go to Florida and rent a boat like they did when they were first married. But the unromantic Ed says he likes the quiet in their house now which implies he sees no need for such a trip. She is trying to recapture the romance that no longer exists in their relationship. She says the classes she takes haven’t helped and instead of showing understanding or taking responsibility, he simply tells her to stop attending the meetings. At this point she is still looking for individual fulfillment from a man.

 

Evelyn instead gets what she needs by visiting Ninny on her own and listening to her tale of two women in the past dealing with male adversity. At this point in the story, Idgie is more at home staying with the Black servants, Sipsey and Big George, than her own family, which again shows Idgie’s lack of conformity. Idgie eventually feels the need to pay Ruth a visit and discovers Frank has hit her friend. Idgie wants to confront Frank, but Ruth tells her to leave if Idgie cares about her. Ruth most likely is implying that men have the upper hand, and she will suffer more violence if Frank thinks she sought outside help. 

 

Idgie receives a letter from Ruth that has an obituary for her mother and a passage from the Book of Ruth in the Bible that implies Ruth wants to be with Idgie. Idgie goes to the Bennett house with Big George and the now grownup Julian Threadgoode (Haynes Brooke). A mournful Ruth says she is pregnant. They begin to load up the car with Ruth’s things when Frank arrives, and he promptly smacks Ruth hard. Big George intimidates Frank, so he lets Ruth go, but not without kicking his wife, who carries his child, down the stairs, showing what a vile person he is. Idgie threatens to kill Frank if he comes near Ruth anymore, and again calls herself “Towanda, the amazing Amazon woman!” which is a persona which conjures up independent female power. But, her threat will come back to haunt Idgie.

 

There is then an appropriate transition to Evelyn looking at a tabloid with a headline about a woman killing her husband and selling his body parts to aliens. Sci-fi homicidal capitalism! (The outlandish violence in the newspaper is actually a foreshadowing of what is to happen). Evelyn probably is subconsciously building up her aggressive feelings about being dismissed, and that is why she is looking at the article. We then get a scene which will feed her anger as a rude male youth bumps into Evelyn who is carrying her bags and proceeds to call her a “fat cow” and an “old bitch.” So not only is Evelyn being dismissed because of her gender, she is also being victimized because of her age and body-shamed due to her weight. 

 

At their next meeting, the sobbing Evelyn tells Ninny she feels “useless” and “powerless.” That can be attributed to how she has been treated. But she is also stressed out and keeps eating. Men go through midlife crises, and women also can experience that feeling. As Evelyn says, “I’m too young to be old and I’m too old to be young.” Ninny discovers that her friend has hot flashes, sweats, and her heart sometimes pounds. So, menopause is complicating her situation. Ninny tells her to get some hormones to help with her symptoms. The older lady acts like a counselor here, also telling Evelyn to get out of the house and find a job. Ninny tells Evelyn that she has a “pretty complexion” and could sell cosmetics. As opposed to the nasty boy who attacked Evelyn’s looks, Ninny inspires self-confidence. We thus have a woman helping another woman to help counter the negative effects of a male. 

 

Ruth, no longer tied to her parents or her husband, now becomes part of the Threadgoode family, has her child, and stays at the Threadgoode house. That fact brings Idgie closer to her family and she and Ruth are like the parents of baby Buddy Junior, a name that honors Idgie’s brother, but also turns out to be ominous for the boy. Papa Threadgoode (Danny Nelson) gets the two women some money so that they can establish the Whistle Stop Café. Their feminist empowerment thus is fueled now by Idgie and Ruth becoming business partners. There then is a song about good-tasting barbecued meat, and Big George is cooking some food and making a sauce, another bit of foreshadowing. 

 

Grady is disapproving because of all the Black folks the two women are serving at the cafe, and warns Idgie that she is asking for trouble from certain residents in this Deep South state in this time period. Idgie says she might ask those mysterious critics “who they are under those sheets.” She implies that Grady is a member of the Ku Klux Klan since she recognized his large shoe size despite the costume. Grady has already asked Idgie to marry him so he is caught in a dilemma and says he will try to talk to the town’s Klansmen. 

 

Ruth and Idgie are compassionate toward other outcasts of society. Ruth doesn’t charge some families who are poverty-stricken. They give the friendly alcoholic, Smokey Lonesome (Timothy Scott), food and a place to sleep. 

 

While cooking up the first batch of fried green tomatoes, which Ruth declares to be “terrible,” the young women get into a laughing food fight that has an erotic feel to it as did the river scene earlier. The film’s director, Jon Avnet, said in an interview he wanted to suggest two people making love without really making love. That fact is not lost on Grady as he suspiciously eyes Idgie and Ruth smeared in raspberries and other ingredients. When he says they are coming close to disorderly conduct, Ruth plies his face with chocolate frosting. He says that Idgie has been “a bad influence” on her, to which Ruth triumphantly says, “I agree!” Ruth realizes that the rule-breaking Idgie may be condemned by the community, but for Ruth, Idgie’s contrariness has helped to set Ruth free.

 

But the laughter is undercut by the presence of Frank scoping out what is happening in Whistle Stop. He and his fellow KKK members come at night and he threatens Ruth, saying she and the baby will return to him. Society’s scorned members, Sipsey and Smokey, are the only ones there to add support to Ruth, and Sipsey is courageous as she tells Frank she is not afraid of him, another piece of foreshadowing. Frank and his fellow Klansmen from Georgia grab Big George and whip him while also breaking some windows at the café. Grady is there to warn them to stay away but tells Idgie the KKK doesn’t like her selling to Blacks, as he previously warned her not to do. He says he is not a member of the KKK despite Idgie’s accusation, as he doesn’t like being in “parades” wearing “bedsheets.”

 

Ruth goes to one of Scroggins’s revival events, which shows her balancing herself between the world of the spiritual and the profane. Her absence occurs during the Town Follies, a secular celebration in which Idgie is more at home participating. In a skit onstage Idgie is dressed as a man and Grady wears a dress which is for comic effect, but which also implies gender reversal, since Idgie never acts traditionally feminine. In contrast to these festivities, Frank arrives and knocks Sipsey to the floor as he attempts to take his boy. Big George sees him and goes to alert Idgie. As Frank heads to his car the sound of the train whistle is in the background, again sounding like an alarm alerting us that dramatic change is again about to occur. Smokey tries to stop Frank, but he hits Smokey who falls to the ground. Someone slams Frank over the head with a frying pan, buy at this point it is a mystery as to who that person is. 

 

There is a time jump to Grady introducing Georgia Sheriff Curtis Smoote (Raynor Scheine) to Idgie. Smoote is investigating the disappearance of Frank, who told his hired help he was going to see his ex-wife and child. So Smoote is suspicious of Ruth and Idgie’s possible involvement in Frank’s absence. Smoote confronts Idgie and says Frank’s hired hand heard her threaten to kill Frank, so he is looking for the evidence that will put her away. He is also intimidating as he questions Big George, since Smoote learned how attached he and Idgie are. At the same time, he enjoys eating what Grady calls the “best barbecue” in Alabama. Big George prepares the food in the back as the camera lingers on his stirring the sauce, the significance of which we learn later. 

 

Ruth tells Idgie that maybe it’s time she moved on because she thinks Idgie feels she must take care of her and little Buddy, Thus, she can’t “settle down,” which implies getting married. But Idgie says, “I’m as settled as I ever hope to be.” She is by nature unsettled, but the someone she feels most attached to is Ruth, not a man. Idgie hasn’t told Ruth what she was doing the night Frank disappeared and Ruth shows she is sympathetic to doing away with her ex-husband since praying has not helped her in the past. She tells Idgie if Frank came to take little Buddy, she would “break his neck.” Idgie reassures her that she doesn’t have to worry about Frank anymore. Ruth assumes Idgie killed Frank, but Idgie appears sincere when she says she didn't murder him. 

 

Back in the present, Evelyn looks different as she wears hipper clothing. Two women steal Evelyn’s parking space at the supermarket, telling her they are “younger and faster.” This time she will not let someone take advantage of her Southern manners and older age. Idgie, by way of Winnie, is having an effect on Evelyn losing her victimhood. She uses Idgie’s battle cry, “Towanda,” and proceeds to continually slam into the parked car that belongs to the young women. She counters their previous verbal jab by telling the car space thieves that she is older so she has “more insurance,” reversing the power position.

 

Evelyn verbally spikes her triumph by telling Ninny what happened in the parking lot. Evelyn says it was considered “bad manners” for a woman to get mad when she was growing up, but here she defies that upbringing and says, “I got mad and it felt terrific.” She no longer is willing to play the role of a female doormat and takes on her new attitude with a vengeance. She says she wants to take out all the “punks” of the world and then the “wife beaters, like Frank Bennett,” hoping to “machine gun their genitals.” She wants to right the wrongs of age discrimination and body shaming by making wrinkles sexually desirable, and banning young fashion models that “weigh under 130 pounds.” Ninny comically asks, “how many of them hormones you takin’?” 

 

Evelyn is now exercising at home and is into healthier food as she tries to change the course of her life, getting on track as it were, toward something more self-fulfilling. Of course her husband, Ed, is not on board with the new Evelyn, but she begins to reverse their roles. Her knocking down a wall in her house to let in light and air is a metaphor for how she is opening herself up to fresh ways of living. (Ed starts to respond to Evelyn’s worry about their marriage by bringing her flowers, but she later rebuilds the wall to have an extra room because she wants Ninny to move in with them. This possibility is too much for Ed, who says it’s “never” going to happen, Evelyn repeats Ruth's words: “Don’t you ever say ‘never’ to me,” which shows how the courage of Ruth in the past has brought the gift of empowerment to Evelyn in the present). When Ed sarcastically asks if his wife is trying to kill him with the low cholesterol diet, she says if she was going to kill him she'd use her hands, a masculine response. Even Ninny is worried about Evelyn’s extreme turnaround as she tells Janeen (Latanya Richardson Jackson,) a worker at the facility, that Evelyn said she gets the urge to hit Ed with a baseball bat when he watches a game on television. Janeen, obviously knowledgeable about the negative side of men, humorously says, “Oh hell, that seems normal to me.” Evelyn is thinking about using the baseball bat, a possible phallic image, and thus reversing the power roles by employing the male symbol of force against the neglectful and inconsiderate man in her life. 

 

The possibility of Evelyn killing Ed is only a joke in the story in the present. But the narrative in the past contains the real doing away with a man. Ninny says that five years passed since Frank disappeared. Smokey was missing for those five years, and now shows up again, suggesting that maybe he was the one who killed Frank. Smoote still shows up looking for the killer, but also so he can enjoy the barbecued meat. There is that ominous train whistle again in the background and the train zooms by, as someone calls out in alarm for young Buddy (Grayson Fricke). Will history repeat itself? Almost, as the revolving wheels of the train, possibly implying the passing time on a clock face, reap Buddy Jr.’s arm. 

 After drenching rainfalls, Frank’s truck surfaces, like a dark memory that will not be suppressed. Grady tells Idgie that she and Big George will be under arrest for murder. He says that if she runs off the authorities will be satisfied with executing Big George, since nobody wants to hang a woman, especially a white one. Grady says this racism is just the “facts of life.” But the rebellious Idgie will have no part of institutionalized bigotry. 

 

At the trial of Idgie and Big George, Percy, (Macon McCallman), the prosecuting attorney, tries to make it look like Idgie manipulated Ruth into leaving her husband and then she and Big George, who he slanders with racial slurs, murdered Frank. Idgie is confrontational and sarcastic on the witness stand. She never compromises as to what makes her who she is. Ruth dismisses the notion that she was controlled by Idgie and says she went with Idgie because she was “the best friend” she ever had, and declares that, “I love her.” In this context, a platonic love is assumed, but Ruth does not qualify her affection, despite the prejudice of this time and place against true love between women. 

 Back in the present, Evelyn looks classy with her new clothes and hairstyle. She also has slimmed down a good bit and has a job selling cosmetics as Ninny suggested. She discovers from Sue Otis (Carol Mitchell-Leon), Mrs. Otis’s daughter-in-law, that Ninny's house was condemned and torn down, but nobody told Ninny so as not to upset her. After hearing the news about Ninny’s house, Evelyn walks through the nursing home and as she observes old people in wheelchairs the look on her face shows worry. She may be concluding how people, like houses, are subject to the ravages of time. Evelyn goes to Ninny’s room for the first time and she sees the wall full of pictures of Ruth, Idgie, and the Threadgoode family, along with paper roses, which at least can’t decay. It’s Ninny’s birthday, which adds to the emphasis on the passage of time. Ninny says she can’t believe she’s eighty-three, and says, “it sorta slipped up on me.” All of us as we get older feel exactly like that. Evelyn has brought fried green tomatoes instead of a birthday cake as the past merges with the present. 

 

Ninny looks sad as she thinks about Ruth, who began to lose her appetite after the trial. As Ninny says that Ruth’s cancer was found to be so advanced that she only had a few weeks to live, there is a shot of an engineer oiling a locomotive, again connecting the train to the inescapable approach of death. Ruth wants to hear the story about the ducks flying off with the lake. Idgie says that was just a lie, but Ruth just wants to hear a tale, which although not true, serves a beneficial purpose as opposed to most lies. She is just like the rest of us, which is why we read books and go to movies. The best stories show us what is genuine about the human condition. Ruth passes away as Idgie finishes the tall tale. One finally escapes the onslaught of time when a person leaves this earth behind. Sipsey seems to understand the way of things as she stops the pendulum of the clock in the bedroom and tells Idgie, “Let her go. You know, Miss Ruth was a lady. And a lady always knows when to leave.” Director Avnet said that life has no close-ups, no cuts, so he staged this scene so that Idgie was not looking at Ruth as she told the story, and the audience might not notice Ruth’s passing if not paying attention. He said that’s how life is. We may miss some dramatic events. After hearing about Ruth’s fate, Evelyn confesses to Ninny what most of us are afraid to give words to. She says, “I hate death. It scares me so,” whereas Ninny says she’s much older and is not afraid of dying. This film addresses the different ways people live their lives in the face of that fear. Ninny offers later that what gets us through the tough times is knowing that the most important thing in life “is friends. Best friends.”

 

Evelyn goes to the nursing home another time to find Ninny’s bed empty and an attendant peeling Ninny’s roses off of the wall, like a grim reaper. Evelyn thinks Ninny died, and is devastated until she discovers it is Mrs. Otis who is deceased. Ninny discharged herself to go to the home that no longer exists. When Evelyn catches up with Ninny, the older woman is distraught when she sees that her house is no longer standing. Evelyn cheers her up by saying how Ninny, through her stories, has changed Evelyn’s life, and now makes her glad to get up in the morning. Ninny isn’t worried about herself because she is selfless. She is upset because she no longer has someone to take care of, as she did for her child, husband Cleo, and then Mrs. Otis. Evelyn tells her that she can come live with her, and that she would be a blessing for her and Ed, thugs giving Ninny a purpose. 

We then learn the truth about Franks Bennett’s death, since Ninny discovered what really happened from Mrs. Otis, who was Sipsey’s younger sister. It was Sipsey who picked herself up after being hit by Frank and used her frying pan to bash in his skull. It is interesting that the Black female domestic uses a tool of a servant to dispatch a white supremacist woman abuser. Sort of like divine justice. They know that the Alabama society will not believe the alcoholic Smokey, and the Blacks and their friend, Idgie, that the death was in self-defense and to prevent a kidnapping of a child. Idgie, Big George and his mother, Sipsey, devise a coverup, which is pretty dark. Idgie tells Big George that “it’s hog-boiling time.” There is only the suggestion of what takes place, but we know that Big George is barbecuing an unusual cut of meat. The Georgia lawman, Smoote, comments on how good the food tastes, and Sipsey says, “Secret’s in the sauce,” which is really true, as the director pointed out in an interview, since the mystery of what happened to Frank rests there. Idgie looks horrified to think that Smoote might discover the mystery since he is eating Frank’s cooked remains. Nothing like a touch of cannibalism to spice up a story. Smoote finally found Frank’s body, but just didn’t realize it.

 

Director Avnet said that fried green tomatoes are like the enigma that is the South. The tomato “hasn’t made it to ripeness, it’s dipped in batter. It’s bad for you, but it tastes really, really good.” The café and the food conjure up the hospitality of Southern culture. Of course the cooking of Frank’s body subverts that idea, and brings in that gothic element. 

 

Evelyn and Ninny find a jar with a honeycomb in it at Ruth’s grave with a note from Idgie. Evelyn is astounded to learn from Ninny that Idgie is alive, still “charming bees.” She says that sometimes she believes she catches “a glimpse of her.” Evelyn looks intrigued and says, “Maybe we’ll see her today.” Ninny replies, “Maybe,” and she has an enigmatic look on her face. There has been the suggestion that Ninny is really Idgie. The film possibly implies that, since Ninny never appears in the flashbacks as a younger woman. In Fannie Flagg’s book it is evident that they are separate people, and it would be weird for Ninny to say she had a crush on Buddy, since he was Idgie’s brother. It is more likely that Ninny put the honey and the note there to emphasize that these fascinating people live on through the retelling of stories, just like the fanciful ones that Buddy used to tell and were repeated by Idgie, who then told them to Buddy, Jr. Ninny says as much when she tells Evelyn, “All these people’ll live as long as you remember ‘em.”

 

As Ninny and Evelyn walk away, Ninny’s voice-over says that after Ruth died and the train no longer came to Whistle Stop, the café was shuttered, and everybody “scattered to the winds.” She adds, “when the café closed, the heart of the town just stopped beatin.’ It’s funny how a little place like that brought so many people together.” It is ironic that two social outcasts and their Black friends were a magnet that attracted others to this Alabama town so long ago. Whistle Stop is now a ghost town whose spirits live on in the tales told about it which incorporates individuals and transcends them.

The next film is The Mouse That Roared.

Frozen River

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Similar to another cold-titled movie previously discussed, Winter’s Bone, we have in this 2008 film a view of how those living in oppressive poverty may turn to illegal means for relief when there is no legitimate help on which to rely. The story here distills this theme down to the lives of a struggling wife, Ray (Melissa Leo), and a single Mohawk mother, Lila (Misty Upham).

The first shot is of the frozen river of the title. It provides a means of crossing over the border between New York state and Canada. The idea of connecting is presented here, as the two main characters must eventually span the cultural divide between them. As Lila says later, there is no boundary when it comes to Mohawk territory, and that statement takes on metaphorical meaning, as borders between people must be obliterated in order for them to help each other out, since poverty knows no ethnic or cultural boundaries. We see a new trailer home on the road, which suggests the happy arrival of a new house being delivered, and on which Ray has pinned her hopes for her family. We have a sign that announces the location as Messina, “The Gateway to the Fourth Coast,” implying that we are not in the pick of the litter of locations. The next shot is that of a child’s merry-go-round, but it is not a happy sight, since there are no children playing on it (we in fact find out that it is broken), and the area appears cold, snow-laden, and pretty much inhospitable. We see Ray’s run-down trailer home and Ray is outside , in the cold, alone, crying. She has put a deposit down on a new double-wide, but her gambling-addicted husband took the money for the first installment and ran off.

When the trailer delivery man arrives, Ray tries to get him to leave half of the trailer. It is the second time he has come out and his frustration and Ray’s mirror each other, only, literally, from different sides of the “coin.” The struggle for money is the consuming preoccupation of these people living on the edge of America’s physical and fiscal outskirts. Even the name of the store where Ray works, the “Yankee One Dollar,” emphasizes the importance of the need for a bargain to save some cash. Ray has been employed there for two years, and she was promised that she would be given full-time status after six months. But her boss, despite her the length of time there and always being on time, considers Ray to be a short-timer who is not commited. Her employer just wants to exploit her. For Ray, living by society’s rules has only short-changed her. When Ray stops for gas, she can only find $2.74 in her pocket, and is thrilled when she discovers an extra $5 in her clothes. For dinner, her children eat Tang and popcorn. She rummages through the sofa to find loose change for her boys’ lunch money. Her young son, Ricky, (James Reilly), asks what will happen to their old trailer once they get the new one. She tells him that it will be flattened, sent to China, and made into toys that she will probably sell at the Yankee One Dollar. This little tale shows how Americans are exploited in the world of commerce as they will wind up paying for the same objects twice, once when they are new and again when they are discarded. It also points out how marginal is their existence. Such is the deprived world in which Ray and her family live.

Her son, T.J. (Charlie McDermott) tries to fix the merry-go-round, not so his brother, Ricky, can enjoy playing on it, but so that he can sell it to make money. He is fifteen-years-old, and wants to get a job to help out. But his mother refuses because she doesn’t want him to have to grow up too quickly and lose the chance at enjoying his youth before taking on the burdens of a grown-up. T.J. uses a blowtorch to try and fix the children’s ride, but Ray chastises him about the danger involved (a bit of foreshadowing of what is to come). The runaway dad gave the torch to his son, and he wants to use it, because it is his way of holding onto the hope for the return of his errant father. T.J. yells at his mother for getting on his father too much about turning over his paycheck to her and going to rehab meetings. She reminds him that her husband is an “addict” when it comes to gambling, but his affliction also points to an attempt at finding alternate means to get money when it is so difficult to get ahead financially.

Ray goes looking for her husband and finds his car at a Mohawk bingo parlor, where Lila works. Lila has poor vision which makes it difficult to read the playing cards. She can’t do a good job taking phone messages at a Mohawk reservation office because nobody can read her writing. This physical problem infringes on her ability to earn a living and thus limits her independence. Ray does not find her husband at the bingo tables, but sees Lila drive off in her husband’s car. Ray follows her to Lila’s home, which is also a trailer, one even more dilapidated than Ray’s, since Lila’s doesn’t even have heat. (We hear the man on her radio talking about how it is going to get much colder, with a new storm coming in, which basically stresses how dire her world is). Ray wants the keys to her car, and threatens Lila, shooting a hole in her trailer. Lila gives her the keys, and when Ray says how her husband left his family, Lila tells Ray she saw a man abandon the car and leave on a bus. After Ray is unable to tow the car, Lila says that she can take her to someone who will buy the automobile. It is a trick, because Lila wants to use the car to smuggle illegal Chinese workers into the U. S. Lila gets a hold of Ray’s gun, and forces Ray to go along with the scheme, but offers Ray half of the money she receives. Ray asks what if the police stop them, but Lila says, “They’re not gonna stop you. You’re white.” And, sure enough, they drive right past a trooper, who ignores Ray’s car. These scenes stress the racial profiling in the law enforcement system.

Lila shares the fact that she lost her husband, who drowned (people say they are “drowning in debt,” and perhaps, given the emphasis on the lack of money here, Lila’s husband symbolically died of poverty). Lila’s baby son was taken from her by her mother-in-law, which shows Lila’s sense of helplessness. Her dependence can be seen in the fact that she needs Ray’s car, and her good eyesight to count the money. When they cross the frozen river, and Lila tells Ray not to worry about crossing illegally into Canada, because the whole area is Mohawk territory, we are reminded how the whole continent at one time belonged to Native Americans. But, the whites came and divided the land up, confining the original inhabitants to small reservations. Driving over the river now implies crossing the line between legality and unlawfulness, and when we see the sign that warns of “Danger,” it not only indicates the possibility of cracking the ice, but also of breaking the law. Despite the fact that Lila echoes Ray’s lack of money, and loss of a husband, the two do not get along at this point. Lila has taken her husband’s car, and fooled her into committing a crime. Lila says she isn’t used to working with whites, so the historical animosity divides them. After they conclude their journey, Lila doesn’t pay up, and they struggle, with Lila escaping.

Christmas is coming and Ray doesn’t have enough money to put gifts under the tree. T.J. warns his mother about how their TV is going to be repossessed. (He later runs a scam on an elderly Mohawk woman on the phone, stealing her credit card number, hoping to pay the installment on the television. The company only accepts cash, sparing him the “crossing the line” scenario. But, the scene shows how poverty can corrupt young people, forcing them to lose their innocence, and initiating them into a life of crime). Ray tells T.J. to put up the Christmas tree, because she is going “Christmas shopping.” Ray wants what many American families want, but the irony here is that the only way she knows how to get it is to become a criminal. She again confronts Lila, and this time volunteers to be her smuggling partner.

The people that they are bringing into the U. S. are looking for a better life. But, in order to get to America, they become indebted to people Lila calls “Snakeheads,” (a Satanic reference?), people who pay $40,000 to $50,000 to get them into the country. The illegals basically become slaves, working seemingly forever to pay off that debt. (The nasty Canadian smuggler takes the illegals’ shoes from them before they hide in the car trunk so they won’t run away). Instead of being a land of opportunity, their new country becomes, instead, a place of bondage. So, America, in this film, impoverishes and thus restricts the freedom of original Americans, those who descended from immigrants, and new arrivals who are unable to afford the time and money to become legal citizens.

Ray gets enough money from the smuggling to stop the repossession of the TV. But, T.J. is suspicious. Ray, who is trying to keep her son on the straight and narrow, ironically, get the money illegally, and then lies to her son, saying she got a promotion at work. She says she will get them their “double-wide” home for Christmas, but she says to T.J. not to say anything to his brother, “just in case.” T.J. cynically repeats those words, stressing how he expects nothing to turn out alright. So, despite his mother’s efforts, he has become jaded, having been disappointed so many times before. But, Ray does acquire enough money to get the trailer park dealer, Versailles (Jay Klaitz), to schedule another delivery. There is a brochure for the trailers that says, “Live the Dream,” which seems like an enormous compromise of the American Dream. However, when Ray describes the new home as having several bedrooms, a Jacuzzi, and most of all, insulation to keep the literal, and figurative, coldness at bay, for these people, it is a wish they want to come true. That is why Ray, on the phone to her son, Ricky, says Santa Claus is coming, because the hope is still there, even if it derives from her criminal actions.

On one of their runs, Ray and Lila smuggle a Pakistani couple, who have a bundle that is placed in the back of the car. Ray, who already showed her prejudice when she judged the Mohawk harshly for not celebrating Christmas, now fears that the Pakistanis could be terrorists. On their journey, she throws the bag out of the window, just in case it contains explosives. When they deliver the couple, the woman is screaming, saying her baby was in the bag. Ray and Lila, both mothers, race back to find the baby, who does not seem to be responding. Lila is immediately pessimistic, mirroring the loss she feels about her boy being taken from her. However, they bring the baby into the car, turn on the heat, and revive the child.

T.J. uses a friend to get Ricky the toy he wanted, but when Ray returns, she chastises him for associating with his friend, who she believes stole the gift. It is ironic that Ray tells her son to steer away from criminals when she is one herself. Earlier, T.J. used the blowtorch to defrost frozen pipes, but started a fire in the process, that he was able to extinguish after damage was done. The blowtorch represents how the son, in a way, is carrying a “torch” for his father’s affection, but it also shows the destructive effect of his father’s gambling and absence. He finally breaks down and acknowledges how his father has hurt him, saying what kind of dad runs off and leaves his family right before Christmas, a time when people come together to celebrate their families.

Lila now has glasses, and is able to work at the bingo hall again, which shows how she now wants to be independent. The incident with the baby has shaken her up, and she does not want to do any more smuggling. But, Ray wants to do one more run, and she promises Lila that she can have Ray’s car and gun afterwards. This job goes badly. When the Canadian tries to shortchange them, Ray pulls out her gun, and gets the money from him. But, she is nicked by a bullet as they escape. Troopers chase them, and Ray and Lila must abandon the car as it cracks the ice when they try to cross the river, literally and figuratively ending their crime spree, and signaling the climax of the story. Lila, Ray, and the illegals flee to the Mohawk reservation. The troopers follow them there, and say they need the return of the illegals and Lila, who was known to them before for smuggling cigarettes. The council decides to expel Lila for five years, which means she will not be able to see her son start to grow up. At first Ray says she has to leave, and is sorry about what is happening to Lila, but says at least someone is taking care of her child, while she is the only one who can provide for her kids.

On her way home, Ray looks at the river. The temperatures have moderated and that is why her car fell through the ice. Symbolically, now she must “break the ice,” that separates her culture from that of the Mohawks. In the end, just like in the the TV series Big Little Lies, despite differences, the women here share their sisterhood, and must help each other out. Ray is white, with no criminal past. She offers herself up as the smuggler so that Lila will not be exiled from the reservation and sent to jail. The trooper says that Ray will probably only receive a sentence of four months. Liberated by Ray’s action, Lila now feels empowered and marches into her mother-in-law’s house and takes her child (and her confidence in herself) back.

Ray not only takes the fall for Lila, she entrusts her children to her, saying she can live in the new trailer with her child and take care of Ray’s sons while she is in prison. The two women have broken down the barriers, geographical and historical, that separated them, and have embraced inclusiveness, as they are linked by their common needs and wants. The ending is hopeful, as T.J. has fixed the merry-go-round, allowing the “merry” to be prefixed to this Christmas, as we see the children ride together, with the grim Lila finally smiling, and the new trailer home being transported to its destination.

The next film is Thank You for Smoking.