As with most
of the goals set out on my list, I decided on this one with little forethought and
a strangely dogged determination to complete it. Half way through "Tomates
Verdes Fritos," my brain almost gave up trying to watch, read and
translate without the audio aide. Though I took three years of Spanish in high
school, I haven't been keeping up with it properly and I think my functional
vocabulary could probably fit into one of the 1930's frying pans so prevalent
in this flick.
I have yet to
re-watch it with the sound up, so I'm still looking forward to finding out if I
missed any big plot points. As I understand it though, here's a little
synopsis:
A
sugar-loving middle-aged lady (Evelyn) sets off to visit some grouch in the
hospital and ends up meeting a very cheerful elderly woman (Ninny) and they
fall into conversation. The older woman recounts the beginning of a story that
anchors on the relationship between two girls (one just a child at the first,
and one maybe 10 years older and set to get married to the younger's brother?).
Both girls (Idgie and Ruth) are witness to the death of this would-be-groom.
The story is developed through a series of similar hospital visits, and we
watch the two older women grow in friendship as an echo of the two younger ones
in the recounted tale. Ruth ends up marrying an abusive man, and it seems like
there is some kind of "Earl's Gotta Die" theme for a bit that is
somehow resolved in an apparently funny way (but I don't yet understand why it
is). By the end of the movie, there are more direct hints that the woven tale
is more autobiographical than Ninny originally let on - but it's a pretty
classic twist I think you can see coming for a while.
Even
with the "language barrier," there were a few moments that moved me
to tears. It took much more effort to keep going than I expected and I had to
take a break part way through, but it's an experiment I think I will repeat in
the future, as I work on building my Spanish and lip-reading skills
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