After watching Fried Green Tomatoes I can say one thing—I loved it. Although, I don’t think it’ll appeal to everyone.
I appreciated how it went back and forth between the story of Idgie and Ruth, and Ninny and Evelyn throughout the film. It really kept me on the edge of my seat, as soon as something big would happen in the story it would switch back to Evelyn and I was left wondering, “what happens next?”
Something I really liked was the development of Idgie and Ruth, in their own characters and their relationship. As they got closer, they became more like each other. In the end, Idgie started going to church and Ruth became a more fun rebellious person. Additionally, with Idgie separating herself from her family after her brother died, then becoming closer to Ruth and building a chosen family she loves and protects.
One detail I loved was that Ninny talked about the fact she loved fried green tomatoes, and how Evelyn then brought her fried green tomatoes. I thought this detail was really clever. It was a subtle and casual moment but it really helps connect the story to the present times. It was a somewhat small detail in both the present time and the story, and I liked that it was the title of the book and the movie, it ties everything together.
Now, as much as I appreciate it when movies are realistic to the time period, it was kind of hard to watch the racism happening and I definitely don’t think that it’s for everyone. Though I loved that race didn’t matter to Idgie and that she went to trail so big George and Sipsey didn’t have to, knowing they’ll be hung.
In the end of the film, it is relieved that Big George and Sipsey killed Frank Bennett and proceeded to cook him and serve him to the detective. For whatever reason, I really enjoy the concept of someone committing homicide and the cooking and feeding the victim to the detective, similarly in Lamb to The Slaughter except instead of the victim being eaten it was the weapon. Of course I never want this to happen in real life, but in a book or a movie I find it interesting and I think Fried Green Tomatoes was a perfect example.
They used a lot of suspense and foreshadowing, where after Frank Bennett’s death you see big George out cooking, there’s comments expressing, “oh the barbecue smells good” from the detective. Which is ironic because she is quite literally eating a human, not only a human, the one who he’s there to find and figure out the reason he went missing.
At that point I was able to realize what happened, but I liked how it was never fully explained until the very end.
Overall I enjoyed the film a lot. While I haven’t read the book I’m sure it’s great too and even a lot better. In spite of that fact, I give the film a 7/10. I loved it, I would recommend it to people but I definitely don’t think that everyone would enjoy it and there were some themes I wasn’t a fan of myself.
