5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Worth enduring for Judy Davis, August 13, 2000
This review is from: Georgia [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Thrillers are probably second to comedies as the hardest genres to do well. All the technique at the hands of a director comes to naught if the screenplay is as ridiculous as the one Ben Lewin co-wrote here. The premise is an investigation into the death of a woman that occured in the past, a theme sabotaged by having someone comment that Polish philosophers believe that returning to the past is "an exercise in futility". The idea might have worked if it had concentrated on the 4 Rashomon-style interpretations, and not included a parallel story, where the daughter who is trying to find out the truth behind her mother's demise, is in danger for doing so. Lewin pours on the stylistics, with a marvellous subjective tracking shot of a run down a pier, candle-lit rooms, people living with bare windows, anonymous phone calls, and an overbearing score by Paul Gabrowsky which features a tango. There is even a shower attack which is like a parody of the one from Psycho. Some of the dialogue is impossibly arch. When the daughter sees a portrait of her identical mother at an exhibition at the Ephemera Art Gallery (ugh!), her companion asks the clearly disturbed daughter if something is wrong! Thank goodness Lewin had the sense to cast the always watchable Judy Davis. Unlike her contemporary, Mel Gibson, Davis has returned sporadically to her native Australia after achieving international success, and it's easy to see what attracted her this time. She plays a double role, reminiscent of Frances Farmer's opportunity in Come and Get It. As the daughter, Nina, she is a high-flying tax fraud prosecutor, and it is these skills that enable her access to information to pursue her search. Nina is given an expensive wardrobe, which Davis looks very beautiful in, in opposition to the poor styling of her mother. The character of Georgia is in fact a cypher, which undermines the allure she is supposed to have. She barely speaks and seems to only exist to take photographs, and die. The photographs themselves are quite striking, especially the self-portrait with Davis as a blonde. Davis' scenes with Julia Blake as a friend of Georgia are probably the best part of the film. Lewin gives Davis plenty of space to react and her pain is real, though he does make her look silly when she is being chased. The final explaination for the death is negligible, and the end is particularly bad, though ironically it does say something about why Davis would return to Hollywood.
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