Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
-
83% of critics liked it
(23 reviews) -
88% of users liked it
(118,507 ratings)
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)… More 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, Rovi
- Directed By
- Jon Avnet
- Written By
- Fannie Flagg, Carol Sobieski
- Genres
- Drama, Comedy
- In Theaters
- Dec 27, 1991 Wide
- On DVD
- Apr 18, 2000
- Studio
- Universal Pictures
Critic Reviews
-
Heather Boerner, Common Sense Media
Stirring, sizzling serving of female empowerment.
-
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
Please no.
-
Chuck O'Leary, FulvueDrive-in.com
An immensely likable, wonderfully-performed film.
-
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
The picture is about gender politics and a legacy of communal repression that is itself too embarrassed to port over a nearly-platonic-anyway love story between two women.
-
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
An enjoyable if sentimental chic flick that sanitizes Flagg's novel in two major respects, glossing over the lesbian relationship between Mary Louise Parker and Mary Stuart Masterson and underplaying the blatant racism in the trail of a black man.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
Also available on
UltraViolet Retailers
Other Retailers
Subscription Services
Cast
-
Kathy Bates
as Evelyn Couch
-
Jessica Tandy
as Ninny Threadgoode
-
Mary Stuart Masterson
as Idgie Threadgoode
-
Mary-Louise Parker
as Ruth Jamison
-
Cicely Tyson
as Sipsey
-
Nick Searcy
as Frank Bennett
-
Gailard Sartain
as Ed Couch
-
Stan Shaw
as Big George
-
Gary Basaraba
as Grady Kilgore
-
Jo Harvey Allen
as Women's Awareness Teacher
-
Nancy Moore Atchison
as Little Idgie
-
Suzi Bass
as Nurse
-
Reid Binion
as Young Julian
-
Haynes Brooke
as Older Julian
-
Michael Burgess
as Wingo Man at BBQ
-
Tom Even
as Judge
-
Genevieve Fisher
as Peggy Hadley
-
Grayson Fricke
as Buddy Jr.
-
Bob Hannah
as Defense Attorney
-
Tres Holton
as Boy at Supermarket
-
Catherine Larson
as Girl #1
-
Evan Lockwood
as Tim
-
Ted Manson
as Bailiff
-
James Mayberry
as Orderly
-
Ronald McCall
as Ocie
-
Macon McCalman
as Prosecutor
-
Wallace Merck
as KKK Man
-
Carole Mitchell-Leon
as Sue Otis
-
Danny Nelson
as Papa Threadgoode
-
Chris O'Donnell
as Buddy Threadgoode
-
Enjolik Oree
as Older Naughty Bird
-
Ginny Parker
as Ruth's Mother
-
Bob Penny
as Bailiff
-
Lashondra Phillips
as Young Naughty Bird
-
La Tanya Richardson
as Janeen
-
Richard Riehle
as Reverend Scroggins
-
Raynor Scheine
as Curtis Smoote
-
Timothy Scott
as Smokey Lonesome
-
Constance Shulman
as Missy
-
Afton Smith
as Leona Threadgoode
-
Lois Smith
as Mama Threadgoode
-
Missy Wolff
as 2nd Girl
-
Grace Zabriskie
as Eva Bates
-
David Dwyer
as Hooded Man
-
Fannie Flagg
as Teacher
- Mary-Louise Parke



