Steven Gibson
WR 121TC
27 January, 2003

Review Essay – Fried Green Tomatoes

Fried Green Tomatoes is not just one movie, but two stories in one; although the two stories are a lot a like. They are different in various ways. They take place in two different times, and towns. They also involve two completely different people, kind of. 

Isn’t it odd how one completely off the wall sentence can start a conversation or even a great friendship between two people? It all starts out by Ninny Threadgoode, played by Jessica Tandy telling Evelyn Couch, played by Kathy Bates, that she had her gall bladder taken out. Then continuing the conversation by telling her it was sitting in a jar at the hospital. This conversation continues into Ninny telling Evelyn about the south and a store about Idgie, played by Mary Stuart Masterson and Ruth, played by Mary-Louise Parker. 

The relationship between Idgie and Ruth stems back from when Idgie was a young child. Idgie’s brother was in love with Ruth until his foot got stuck in a railroad tie and he got hit by a train.  After a while Ruth married a man named Frank Bennet. Frank was mean, and abused Ruth. Idgie took Ruth away from Frank. Idgie told Frank that if he ever came near Ruth or the baby, she’d kill him. I think she was serious. 

That’s just like Idgie’s character, to take on anything that came along. She is a strong loud mouth woman. She says what she wants whenever she wants to and doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her. She’ll also take on a man twice her size if she needs to, just to stick up for something that she believes in. 

Idgie and Ruth set up residents in a small town called Whistle Stop, this is actually wear they opened a little café called “The Whistle Stop Café”. Pretty good name don’t you think? I mean it tells you what it is and the location of it all in one. Anyways, in the café they served various dishes including fried green tomatoes. They also served some great home cooked barbecue, which was made by Idgie’s hired man. 

When Evelyn met Ninny she was a little unsure of herself. She was just the opposite of Idgie. An example of her being unsure of herself was when the punk kid ran into her without apologizing and then called her a fat cow. She just stood there and took it and started crying. Instead of being confident and saying, “Now you listen here you little SOB…”, which is something Idgie would do. But I felt sorry for her because she gets ran into by this rude kid and then he hurts her feelings, then her bag of groceries rips open and she drops them. (I certainly hope she didn’t have any eggs in there.) 

Then Evelyn started taking hormones, and she became Towanda, Queen of the world. That’s when she became a lot more like Idgie; ready kick everyone’s butt. She started eating right, exercising and feeling better about herself. She stopped going to all of those self help classes and started coming closer to her husband. 

Later in the movie Idgie and her black hired man were accused of killing Fran Bennet. This was after the Sheriff found his car in the lake. It wasn’t until the Reverend lied under the oath of a Moby Dick book. That the judge threw out the case, because no one would ever accuse the reverend of lying. 

Then Ruth got sick with cancer and quit eating. It was at this point in the movie that Idgie actually started settling down and realized that she couldn’t be all out there doing what she wanted anymore because she was going to have to take care of Ruth’s little boy. She also couldn’t face up to the fact that Ruth was going to die. I do believe that this is the only time in the movie that Idgie cries. 

To me this movie is a lot deeper then anyone could ever see by watching it once. I’ve seen it three times and I just realized that Idgie and Ninny was the same person; which means friends are everything. Idgie made Ruth feel better about herself, and Ninny made Evelyn realize that she wasn’t worthless. This movie is a not one story but two stories; one from the old south and one from current day. Both stories contain everyday problems, everyday characters, and the ending contains an actual solution. This movie is about friendship, the friendship between Ruth and Idgie, and the friendship that was formed between Evelyn and Ninny. This movie also shows that friendships can form anywhere for no apparent reason, and they can last for a lifetime.