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List Price: $19.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 42833
Released: April 6, 2004 |
| Our Price: $13.50 |
| Used Price: $2.05 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The story of three generations of Portuguese women in the fishing community of New Bedford MA. Young and beautiful Sally still mourning the loss of her deceased husband has resigned herself to work in the textile mill care for her elderly mother and worry about her beautiful rebellious teenage daughter Vicky. However when British charmer Charlie comes to town he woos Sally until he sweeps her off her feet...That is until she finds out that Charlie is not the person he claimed to be when they met. Jason Isaacs (Black Hawk Down The Patriot) Sophia Milos (TV's "CSI Miami").System Requirements:Running Time 104 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396043190 Manufacturer No: 04319
Description of Passionada:
Unlikely romance is the subject of Passionada, an atmospheric piece just offbeat enough to be likable. Set in the flavorful Portuguese fishing community in New Bedford, the film offers two quirky lovers. The beautiful Sofia Milos plays a skeptical widow, sternly raising a teenage daughter (Emmy Rossum), who nevertheless shows her passionate side when she sings traditional Portuguese fado songs at night. Jason Isaacs, veteran of many villain roles (The Patriot, Peter Pan), is a gambler new to town, who is suitably entranced by this lady's singing (though he must hide his profession if he wants a chance with her). The story has its rocky moments, but director Dan Ireland (The Whole Wide World) lets the actors work up some winning chemistry together, and the sultry soundtrack helps; the fado singing is dubbed by Misia. This will go down easy for romance fans, and you know who you are. --Robert Horton
Passionada Reviews:
Disappointed 
2007-03-28 - I am as big a fan of romances as the next poor sap but this one failed my expectations in too many ways: mostly direction and screen writing I suppose. Emmy Rossum always adds a happy, sweet, bright flash of enthusiasm to the movies she appears in but her character loses the thread in the plot halfway thru.
Milos is gorgeous but she's leaden in this role, much as she is in CSI Miami, mostly just walking around looking good, but uninspired. And if she can sing, it still looks like she's lip-synching.
Isaacs is pretty good until he loses all dignity and starts groveling.
But I loved New Bedford, Massachusetts!
Romantic movie for the people over 35
2006-07-28 - It's improbable but perhaps that's part of it's appeal. It's about a British gambler that has been blacklisted from every casino in the world who falls in love with a barely middle age beautiful widow.
It's a simple story but the characters are appealing. Well, the lead actor grows on you. But I found the widow and her teenage daughter likable from the beginning.
It's a love story for anyone who believes or wants to believe in second chances in life.
A little romance. 
2006-05-15 - I will admit that I bought this movie simply because Jason Isaacs is in it. That said, I enjoyed the movie. It's a light, pleasant little romance set in a gorgeous place. In fact, New Bedford is practically a separate charcter, and a lovely and appealing one, at that.
Although the themes in this movie aren't very complex, and the story isn't all that original, the characters are attractive and likable, and I have to give everyone involved snaps for the beautiful settings and especially for the wonderfully erotic scene in which Celia (Sofia Milos) feeds Charlie (Jason Isaacs) bits of food, and he sucks on her fingers. It's very sensual, without being explicit or tawdry, and it leads to some really fantastic kissing between Jason and Sofia.
The DVD commentary from Jason, Sofia, and the director Dan Ireland is just about the most entertaining commentary I've ever heard on a movie. In fact, the commentary is more entertaining than the movie, because Jason is so clever and funny, and Dan and Sofia are both so sincere in their fondness for the setting and the wonderful fado music. The sensual scene noted above is particularly fun listening on the commentary, with Jason talking about how difficult it is to both play and to watch himself play romantic scenes, Sofia talking about how she fell a little bit in love with Jason during that scene, and Dan alternately teasing them and lavishing praise on them for the passion in the scene. It's pretty obvious that the three of them like and respect each other and really enjoyed working together on this movie. It is also interesting to hear them talk about how disappointed and a little hurt they were that the the film didn't do better at the box office.
I gave this movie a 4, although a 3 1/2 might be more appropriate. It is beautifully shot, the performances are all very fine, the music is amazing, but the story is just a little too predictable.
Cards, Fish, and lots of Sophia Milos
2005-12-13 - Charlie (Jason Isaac) is a card player of dubious luck, who lives in a cheap motel and is going nowhere until he meets and woos a conservative and beautiful Portugese seamstress/singer, Celia, played by the stunning Sofia Milos (CSI: Miami). Celia has a meddlesome teenage daughter, Vickie (Emmy Rossum) who wants to learn how to count cards by blackmailing Charlie into teaching her, but he is banned from all casinos. Vickie wants to hook her mother up with a new man but her computer dating schemes fail. In the meanwhile, Charlie's only friends, a wealthy couple, Lois (Theresa Russell) and Danny Vargas (Seymore Cassel), lend him their Jaguar XKE, sailboat, and home to impress the widow that he is a successful and wealthy entrepreneur. It sounds like a typical dating game setup except for the background settings of the Portugese fishing community, mouthwatering seafood cooking, and casino gaming that flesh out the story.
Through falling in love, fishing, and lying to make points with the mother, Charlie learns how to turn his life around the hard way through his deceptions which backfire, and Sofia tries to forget the husband whose death has left her prematurely widowed yet not completely dead from the neck down.
With the interferences of Vickie, significant amounts of fish as unlikely props, and an otherwise sappy storyline, this is an entertaining film which allows the wonderful character actor Jason Isaac (Peter Pan, The Patriot) to show another side to his already excellent acting chops. Emmy Rossum is adequately irritating in a pre-Phantom of the Opera role that suggests her growth from typical teenager to ingenue-in-training. However, it is the vibrant and seductive Sofia Milos as Celia who gives a rounded performance from cloistered widow to sensuous nightclub chanteuse that surprises and delights.
This is a small story about love in all its forms and definitions. Thoroughly enjoyable and wonderful for a date nite or simply rainy day, Passionada entertains with its story of misdirected love and casino gambling gone right.
Charming, romantic valentine of a movie
2005-11-29 - I found "Passionada" to be utterly charming--a movie about second chances and taking a chance on love when it comes your way. The movie is very well cast and the cinematography is breath-taking. You can tell the director really fell for New Bedford and did his best to re-create the Portugese-American fishing community there. Jason Isaacs did a splendid job playing the vulnerable, low-roller con man Charlie Beck and Carla Milos (who is actually Greek/Italian) did a credible job as Sofia (a widow but "the most married woman you're likely to meet" as the bartender puts it. Emily Rossum, in a pre-Phantom role, shines as Sofia's daughter, the budding gambler. This is an old-fashioned romance movie where the emphasis is on the romance rather than the sex. The DVD offers the discarded original ending (too melodramatic) and commentary by the director and the cast.
