If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Emmy is #2 in my pantheon, thanks to Minnie Driver and her appearance in "the Phantom of the Opera". For me, Emmy is the best young actress but she is also the most underrated: Jessica got praises, smiles for magazines only and does stinker after stinker. Natalie wins awards. And Emmy is just empty-handed, albeit she is cool with everybody and has true talent! Here, she is only sixteen and she plays a wonderful witty daughter! If the movie is the classic (unsurprising) romance with the love/hate/love/hate stages, it has some original sparks as well: the Portuguese culture, a modest unknown town, and a solid cast that put on the spotlight people usually cast to guest-star! So it's rather enjoyable, and more when Emmy appears. And if you really want to have fun, look for the alternative ending which was indeed totally disastrous!

Passionada is a romantic comedy that stars Jason Isaacs, Sofia Milos and Emmy Rossum together with Seymour Cassel and Theresa Russell. The romance is set in New Bedford, Massachusetts, a formerly wealthy port town that has a sizable population of Portuguese descent that is about a woman learning to trust men again finds herself falling for a man who may not be trustworthy.The story is by David Bakalar; the screenplay was written by Jim Jermanok and Steve Jermanok;and the movie is directed by Dan Ireland.Passionada focuses on Celia Amonte,who is a Portuguese American widow who lives in New Bedford, Massachusetts with her daughter Vicky. The broke British card counter Charles "Charlie" Beck arrives in town to stay with and mooch off some wealthy friends and gamble at the local casino. The friends are Daniel Vargas and his wife Lois Vargas. One night, dining at a Portuguese restaurant with Lois, Charlie sees Celia singing fado, a haunting Portuguese form of song. He is enchanted with her, approaches her, and is rebuffed. Charlie later finds Celia's address in the phone book and goes to her house, where he encounters Vicky, whom he had met at the casino before. Vicky agrees to help Charlie woo her mother in exchange for lessons on card counting. This proves difficult, as Celia still longs for her deceased husband and has not dated since his death.But nevertheless,Charlie's charm eventually conquers Celia's reservations, and a romance begins to bloom, However, Charlie has made the mistake of telling Celia he's a fisherman, and he's not sure how much longer he can keep up the charade. Passionada as the title suggests should be about a passionate relationship between two people that have a dark past that must move on to a bright future.Unfortunately,the movie does not deliver on the needed emotion to fulfill its title.It has included numerous subplots which made the movie lose focus on the love story between Charles and Celia.But what makes up for it is the performances of the three leads especially Sofia Milos and Emmy Rossum,which makes the movie entertaining and watchable.Their performances make up for the predictable,numerous subplots and lack of emotion of the movie. In summary,Passionada lacks passion but entertaining.

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 opening shots in this film were beautiful, and I was happy to recognize the New England coastline even before it was identified. I hoped I would get a look into an interesting American community. My pleasurable anticipation grew when I saw how attractive-looking the actors were.I first realized something was wrong in the first casino scene, when I heard the English accent of the Charlie character. Why couldn't she fall in love with an American from New Bedford? What does England have to do with the Portuguese-American community? Or reprobate gamblers? Nothing! it's really just an improbable, contrived, tinny romance. The Portuguese characters are only cardboard. This movie strains to drag in interest from afar, instead of developing the life that's throbbing all around. (I'm glad I never saw the Seattle version. That sounded even worse!)Isn't the life and career of the woman interesting enough? How did she transform herself from the sewing factory worker to torch singer every day? What about the fishermen, and the handsome fisher-boy? I found myself wishing for a different movie.I have nothing against the English. I love them and their accents! But something is wrong when you have nothing to do but admire Jason Isaacs' face as much as you want to. (I'm sure I never got that good a look at Sean Connery.)I have to admit, the cinematography was beautiful, and I loved the singing. I would love to learn more about 'faro'.