Fantastic!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

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. Love, fish, 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 dead from the neck down. Through the interferences of Vickie, lots of fish as unlikely props, and a sappy storyline, this is an entertaining film which allows the wonderful character actor Jason Isaac to show another side to his already powerful acting chops. Emmy Rossum is adequately irritating in a pre-Phantom of the Opera role which suggests her growth from typical teen to ingénue in training. However, it is the vibrant 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.

The only reason i watched Passionada at first was because it had one of my favorite actors, Jason Isaacs. Honestly, i was a bit bored at the beginning, but midway through i was entranced. All the actors gave amazing performances, my favorite being that of the rebellious daughter, played by Emmy Rossum. She really is talented, and even her minor performances blow me away. Sofia Milos was truly beautiful and had a perfect performance. Her grandmother added humor and charisma. Finally, Jason Isaacs gave another great performance in the first movie i have seen where he wasn't a villain or a drag queen. He really shows his range in this film. Although the plot could definitely use some help, the cast is what kept this movie going. I guess it has everything, romance, comedy, and drama, as well as beautiful songs sung by Milos's character. The cast is the main reason why i watched the movie all the way through.

I do agree with the comments I have read. The film is a fine romantic pic, and when I wasn't thinking it pretended to be about Portuguese people who live in USA, I almost enjoyed it. I think films have a double role: to entertain and teach us something. What can people, who don't know Portugal or Portuguese people, learn with a film about "Portuguese", if people doesn't speak Portuguese, and even their names aren't common Portuguese names and surnames? It's a kind of arrogance and ignorance to make a film about Portuguese and be misinformed that much. Only in Hollywood, it's possible to make a film in which the only things really Portuguese are fado and sardines... Even the music at the popular party is a bad sample of Brazilian music. It's a shame!

Passionada is a very good movie and the first I seen that introduced America to the Portuguese Fado music. (A little was in the old film "Lisbon" with Ray Milland)Good scenery of New Bedford, Mass showing it's brief Portuguese culture to the screen which was missing in "Moby Dick" and "Down to the Sea in Ships" which was also about New Bedford.Too bad the movie was only 7 days on the big screen where I'm from because people I told about the film didn't get a chance to see it in theaters as it was no longer there when they tried to go.My only objection to the film was calling the Grandmother "Nana" as most would call her "Vavo" or "Avo".I hope it comes out on DVD in widescreen and surround sound soon.