Passionada

The movie's website mentions "the sadness within" as being a rough translation for the title of one of the film's central love songs, the haunting and emotionally wrenching "Triste Sina".. The translated words, in fact, evoke the state of being that heroine Celia Amonte has made her way of life. And moving through the first few minutes of the story, one can empathize with her reluctance to step beyond the borders of a life that once was.. She was loved in great measure, after all, so it would seem a safer bet to live on in grief rather than pretend love of that depth can ever be felt again.. The tale of how she gradually brings herself to open up to do so, and how the man who seduces and awakens her also wakes up to his own responsibility and entanglement in her life, really pulled me in. I loved it, and loved all of these characters, even in broadly drawn moments. I just wanted them to be happy :).. The scene that sums up the film's title for me, is the night Celia prepares a meal for her new admirer, Charlie. The way that scene unfolds was as delicious and mouth-watering as I imagine the culinary offerings were ;).. The overall mood and atmosphere of it stayed with me long afterwards, which to me if the mark of a truly effecting story. Well done.

"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-)

Independent film making is to be commended because it brings a different view about things that are so over blown by mainstream Hollywood fare. That said, it's completely incomprehensible the negative comments generated by "Passionada". This film, directed with style by Dan Ireland, deserves better than what has been written in IMDb.

Most of the venom directed to "Passionada" seems to be about its authenticity and the ethnicity of the characters being misrepresented by the cast assembled. Those complaints are baseless. Do the same people that put it down have anything to say when they watch other mainstream films that have no logic at all? I don't think so. Lighten up, people it's only a film that aims at entertaining its viewers.

"Passionada" is a small film about loss and redemption told in cinematic terms by a cast that plays well together. Jason Isaacs, the card sharpie Charles Beck, finds love with the dark and sultry Celia Amonte, played by Sofia Milos. Their love grows in spite of all what Charles hides from his past.

Lupe Ontiveros, an excellent actress, doesn't have much to do in the film, but then it's not her story we are watching. Emmy Rossum is the rebel daughter. Seymour Cassel and Theresa Russell are fine in their small roles.

The town of New Bedford, Massachussets, serves as the perfect background for this romantic comedy.

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 .......

In a Portuguese fishing colony, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the widow singer of "Fado" Célia Amonte (Sofia Milos) has been grieving the death of her beloved fisherman husband for seven years. She lives with her teenager daughter Vicky (Emmy Rossum), and her mother-in-law is her neighbor next door. The English gambler Charles Beck, who is spending some days with his wealthy friends Daniel Vargas (Seymour Cassel) and Lois (Theresa Russell), falls in love with her, and lies about his past to conquer the love of Célia. "Passionada" is a nice romance. Indeed, it is literally a delicious romance, with many Portuguese and Spanish dishes, which made me feel hungry. The story is predictable, but a great entertainment, and the cast is very attractive. I glanced some reviews in IMDb, and I really found very funny comments. First of all, the Portuguese spoken along the movie is from Portugal. There is a joker, who wrote that the accent was from Brazil, but only the Portuguese people who live in Brazil has that accent (just in time, my grandmother was Portuguese and I am Brazilian, so I can tell about accents). I do not know Spanish, but "Passionada" is neither a Portuguese nor an English word. I believe that it might be a combination of the English word "Passion" (from Charles Beck, the English card player) with "Apaixonada" (from Portuguese, meaning in love), with the author playing with words. Célia prepares many dishes of fish and seafood for Charles, and she has never mentioned that they are Portuguese dishes (inclusive one of them is from Mozambique). There are dozens of ways of preparing "bacalhau" (codfish), and not only oven-made, and the "bolinhos de bacalhau" (codfish cakes) are perfect. Indeed, Paella is a typical Spanish dish, but her intention is to show Charles different meals she was able to cook. In accordance with IMDb information, Sofia Milos was born in Zurich, Switzerland, and not in Greece. At the street parade, the song is sang with the Portuguese of Portugal accent. The song, when they dance is "A Felicidade", a Brazilian "bossa nova" of Vinicious de Morais and Tom Jobim (it is not a "samba", or "soft???-samba"). It is amazing the number of nonsense I read about this movie in IMDb. The alternative end is horrible and fortunately was deleted. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): This DVD is not available in Brazil.