Evelyn is an overweight and rather depressed woman in a marriage which has lost all hint of sparkle. She has tried all kinds of classes to help her become more assertive, but none of them has helped. Then she meets Ninny, an elderly lady in a nursing home.

Ninny starts to tell Evelyn about events in her family’s past, beginning back in Alabama in the 1920 when a terrible tragedy marred the life of young Idgie. In classic film style, we see the events of the past as if they were happening in a parallel world – and this continues throughout the film, interspersing Evelyn’s growing friendship with Ninny, with anecdotes about Idgie, now grown up, and her close friend Ruth.

The theme is the importance of love and friendship, with subplot showing a bit of social history, as we see just how bad racial intolerance was in part of the US, less than a hundred years ago. There is a crime mystery too, and a thread about the horrors of an abusive marriage.

Extremely well done, with excellent casting, and quite poignant in places. The ending was somewhat open, but satisfying nonetheless.

Recommended.