Movie Reviews

Review in a Hurry:  It's being sold as a lighthearted, tear-jerking chick flick. In actuality, Georgia Rule has a serious dark side—and that's not a bad thing.

The Bigger Picture:  Georgia Rule is a good example of a marketing bait and switch. Supposedly a brassy estrogen-filled story of three generations of women trying to understand one another, it turns down a very dark path right away. This is not typical of director Garry Marshall's oeuvre, a man who never met a sentimental comedy he didn't like (Pretty Woman, The Princess Diaries).

Writer Mark Andrus' script could have been sanitized and schmaltzified, but to his credit, Marshall dives headfirst into the controversial plot. The trouble starts when Lilly (Felicity Huffman) decides to take her rebellious daughter Rachel (Lindsay Lohan, playing...herself) to stay with her mother, Georgia (Jane Fonda), in a tiny Idaho town. Rachel is obnoxious and arrogant, but Georgia—wonderfully played by Fonda—is a perfect foil.

From there, the problems in this family pile up like a stack of bills: Lilly's an alcoholic, Rachel reveals some dangerous secrets, and Georgia struggles to hold it all together. Not exactly the barrel of laughs promised in the theatrical trailer. Without revealing some important plot twists, there are several just plain old weird scenes showcasing Rachel's troubled behavior that come off as creepy and cryptic. One can't help but wonder, "Where the heck is this going?"

Does that mean Georgia Rule fails? Not quite. It's an honest hard look at a very messy family, with a fantastic cast. The movie threatens to lose its way—and its audience—but ends up right where it should by the last scene.

The 180—a Second Opinion:  The movie is tonally off, as the efforts at both small-town humor and heavy family drama clash in a big way. A head-scratcher that will easily turn off those expecting a lot more fun and flights of fancy.