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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"Courageous"...But Not Particularly Good, September 6, 2007
Viewing GEORGIA RULE recently I flashed back on a passage from Salinger's FRANNY AND ZOOEY (which I had recently re-read). There is a passage in that book in which a young television actor, speaks disparagingly of scripts that are "courageous," without their necessarily being particularly good. What he's talking about, of course, is the kind of drama that is supposed to be risky and challenging, a bit off beat maybe. "Edgy" might be the current word. That's precisely the kind of dramatic work GEORGIA RULE tries to be. You can just imagine the filmmakers patting themselves (and each other) on the back, congratulating themselves on their frankness and daring. This is a movie that wants to say SO MUCH--to bravely go where no screenwriter (or director OR producer) would have dared to go before (except that they HAVE, in point of fact). You've got your intergenerational conflict, your intergenerational substance abuse, you've got promiscuous teens--and apparently incestuous step-dads. You've got salty grandmas, agonized moms and troubled, but spunky teens. Now even if you haven't seen all these ingredients mixed up before, it's hard not to find GEORGIA RULE a bit contrived and quite desperate. It nearly breaks under the strain. The reviews for this film have not been kind, and it seems likely that whatever notoriety it may have garnered may have more to do with Lindsay Lohan's reported bad behavior on the set than with the film's inherent quality. As it turns out, she probably could have just pleaded "Method" and claimed that she was just staying in character off-camera. Her Rachel is a bit of a wastrel. With a heart of gold, of course. This is a film that virtually invites reviewers to say something cranky about a stellar cast adrift in a lame production. Well, it IS a pretty solid cast, and all the actors have their moments. Felicity Huffman and Lindsay Lohan have some very strong scenes--and others where the script or their director (or their own best instincts) let them down. Jane Fonda is probably the most consistent of the three starring actresses, but that may have much to do with her character's flinty, discipline-for-discipline's sake nature. She can coast a bit on her character's quirks. Huffman and Lohan are required to take more risks. Sometimes they take off, and sometimes they fall flat (quite literally in Huffman's case). GEORGIA RULE, while not especially good, could prove instructive to aspiring actors. It's true you get to see good actors at work (and I mean, HARD at work). What you don't get is a good, solid story. In 2007, simply presenting viewers with intergenerational dysfunctionality doesn't cut it anymore--if it ever did. Yes, we know that happy families are all alike, and that unhappy families are unhappy in uniquely different ways. If that's true, however, you shouldn't have to struggle so much to show those differences. GEORGIA RULE #1 should probably have been: Don't try so hard!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
How do we know we're loved? 4 1/2 stars, September 11, 2007
Though I don't recall this movie getting great reviews from the critics, I expected at least a decent movie considering the three main stars. I got more than expected. The three lead actresses were well chosen. Jane Fonda, looking exceptionally well at age 70, is outstanding as the grandmother, Georgia, who lives her life by certain 'rules,' hence the title, and who has a history with her daughter, Lilly, (Felicity Huffman), that seems lacking in emotion. 'Seems' is the operative word. While we aren't exactly privy to what has caused this rift between mother and daughter, we glean from one particular scene that Georgia's parents never told HER that they loved her. We gather that Georgia's apparent inability to say the three words, "I love you" to her daughter may simply be because she was not told what she needed to hear from her parents. In one touching scene between Georgia and Lilly, when Lilly asks her mother if she ever loved her, Georgia replies, 'How could I not love you?' She still is not able to say those three magic words to her daughter though she has no trouble saying them to her granddaughter, Rachel, (Lindsay Lohan). Dermont Mulroney is wonderfully cast as the kindly veterinarian whom Rachel works for and Cary Elwes well cast in a somewhat chilling performance as Rachel's stepfather. Rachel lies, manipulates, has a history of drug abuse and all manner of teen problems. There is, of course, a reason for her behaviour and underneath it all, we see many glimpses of a tender heart. This is Ms. Lohan's best performance since she made her wonderful debut as identical twins in 'The Parent Trap' at the age of eleven. Despite the two other big name stars, Lindsay Lohan is THE star of this movie. We can only hope that this gifted young lady is able to heal herself before a very promising career is ruined.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
All Surface and No Depth, September 5, 2007
Garry Marshall is highly regarded for his style in pulling of sophisticated comedies ('Pretty Woman', 'The Other Sister', 'Beaches', 'Frankie and Johnny' etc) and for this film he selected a script by an equally respected writer, Mark Andrus ('As Good as it Gets', Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood', 'Life as a House'). To add to this assured formula he managed to cast some fine actors, and so the audience is left wondering 'What happened?' Most people would judge the cover of this DVD to represent a full-blooded comedy. But that is the first blunder. What happens in this film is the examination of a severely dysfunctional family of women: Rachel (Lindsay Lohan) is an oversexed 17 year old tyrant whose alcoholic mother Lilly (Felicity Huffman) can no longer tolerate and ships her miscreant daughter off to the 'hell world' of Lilly's distant controlling mother Georgia (Jane Fonda) to shape Rachel up for college. Georgia of the many rules and rigid lifestyle lives in Idaho and Rachel arrives and immediately plies her bad personality on the folks of the little town, including seducing a soon-to-be Mormon evangelist Harlan (Garrett Hedlund) and shocking the little boys who are cared for by Georgia. Georgia gets Rachel a job as an office girl for Dr. Ward (Dermot Mulroney) who is an ex-lover of Lilly but a role model for the town since his wife and son's accidental death. Rachel decides to get back at her mother and her stepfather Arnold (Cary Elwes) by explaining her misbehavior to Simon: her stepfather sexually abused her from age 12 to 14. In an attempt to help Rachel's family heal, Simon informs Georgia who informs Lilly about the abuse and Lilly responds by leaving Arnold to return to Idaho, cut her hair, and give in to drinking wholeheartedly. Was Lilly's confession true or fabricated? This question serves as the climax that brings about changes in everyone. The point is dulled by the fact that we never really care about any of these involved characters, so shallow is the writing that could have salvaged a story by fleshing out potentially interesting characters. The cast is so good that they give it their all to try to save this sinking ship of a film. We want to praise Fonda and Huffman but their roles simply don't allow the actors to go very far. Marshall has worked with many of these actors before (even Hector Elizondo is given a very tiny part!) but this time the cake doesn't rise. Worth viewing for the opportunity to see some very good actors given a few moments of valid screen time. Grady Harp, September 07
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