No clarity: Georgia Rule!
May 15th 2007 12:23
It's difficult to no where to begin when describing the movie Georgia Rule. There is a great deal to be said and it's difficult to clarify it all. Clearly the movie's writer (Mark Andus) had the same problem.
Georgia Rule is billed as the strory of three generations of women who re-unite unwillingly in Idaho due to the out of control ways of the youngest, played by Lindsay Lohan - but then surely you all knew that by now!
Rachel (Lohan) is sent to Idaho by her recently detoxified alcoholic mother Lilly (Felicity Huffman) and her high-flying lawyer step-father Arnold (Cary Elwes) to live under the guidance of her battle-axe grandmother Georgia (Jane Fonda). Lilly and Georgia do not get on, Lilly riling under her mother's regimented lifestyle, all codified under the phrase: "Georgia rule!"
Rachel arrives, not without ceremony, a rebel to the last she riles virtually everyone she meets until she finally arrives at her grandmothers house, only to find that she too will fall under the sway of "Georgia Rule" or else!
Too little transpires before Rachel reveals to the local vetrinarian/MD Simon (Dermot Mulrony), an old flame of her mothers, that her step-father sexually assaulted her when she was twelve.
This is where the otherwise brilliantly played out and excellently comedic story begins to falter. It is not the sudden plot twist that wrecks it, it is the presence of too much plot full stop.
Lilly has issues, Georgia has issues, my God does Rachel have issues. Lilly's ex-flame has issues. Rachel local bit of stuff Harlan (Garrett Hedlund) has issues. Everyone has issues and it just becomes too complex to reasonably resolve everything satisfactorily. As a result the end is an expected disappointment.
The cast all give performances that should be hands down excellent. But there is still something unspeakably wrong.
The legendary Jane Fonda visibly struggles in a role with little to no depth that is patently too old for her to play. Fonda (who turns 70 in December) is still far to well preserved to play her age convincingly - nothing against her talent as an actress. She just looks too young for this part - which frankly belongs more to the Lauren Bacall vintage.
Fonda, however, is not alone. Felecity Huffman, in the part of Lilly, is similarly displaced. An alcoholic mother of one and used-to-be-wild-child, Huffman does her best with a part conflicted as it is conflicting. Lilly's story is all over the place and never finds a settling conclusion. Moreover, Felcity Huffman does not feel right as Jane Fonda's daughter or as Lindsay Lohan's mother!
Lohan's act is a hard one to describe. She does a good job, not enough to convert her from a party-girl into a serious actress, but a decent job. It's really quite difficult to imagine anyone else playing the part as Lohan presently seems to be the only late-teen-age girl who can act - convincingly! Her chemistry with both Fonda and Huffman is seriously lacking, though she gells extremely well with her male co-stars.
Dermot Mulrony plays faded stud (as usual) while Cary Elwes) plays the bastard, a part he is more and more often sidelines into these days. Their performances are decent.
The true surprise package of the male cast is Garret Hedlund, who, fresh from such pretty-boy action-puff such as the roles of Patrocluc in Troy and Murtagh in Eragon, gives an, edgy, boyish and thoroughly convincing performance in a character who should have been just so much formula. Just find a muscled hunk, a spray tan and add water. Not so here. Hedlund will be back in better roles - hopefully!
The greatest flaw of Georgia Rule must finally lay with its director Gary Marshall, who has directed enough romantic comedies in his time to have known better. Georgia Rule could have been a comic movie with a very important dramatic story to tell. The problem is he doesn't let his actresses tell it!
Even in some of their most serious scenes, Fonda and Huffman both play for laughs. Lohan suffers less from the same syndrome having less opportunity to do so. One particularly botched scene has Fonda informing her son-in-law that "if it weren't for the fact that my daughter loves you, I'd kill you!" That isn't a line for a laugh, and yet that's how Marshall has her play it. Similarly when Huffman finely learns the truth from her husband she runs at him screaming and begins to pummel him with her purse - again Marshall has this actress, capable of such brilliant drama, play the scene for laughs! It was a critical misjudgement. That said, there are still moments when Marshall has developed fine performamces from his three leads. Fonda more than anyone else has moments (moments only true) of absolute brilliance.
All in all Georgia Rule must be accussed of being a rambling and self-indulgent story that squanders its brilliant cast and what might have been a classic story along the lines of On Golden Pond meets Marvin's Room. Frankly had it not been such a meeting it probably would have been a better story.
Given its subject matter it is clearly more suited for more mature audiences, so don't take the kids along to see it. However, if you are after a good laugh and story that demands thought without giving you brain fry then Georgia Rule will not disappoint. You will walk out of the cinema disappointed, but at the very least you will have had fun, for at its core Georgia Rule is funny with beauty and heart. A shoulda-coulda-woulda classic it is just a hop (bad writing) skip (misdirected) and a jump (questionable casting) away from being brilliant.
Georgia Rule is billed as the strory of three generations of women who re-unite unwillingly in Idaho due to the out of control ways of the youngest, played by Lindsay Lohan - but then surely you all knew that by now!
Rachel (Lohan) is sent to Idaho by her recently detoxified alcoholic mother Lilly (Felicity Huffman) and her high-flying lawyer step-father Arnold (Cary Elwes) to live under the guidance of her battle-axe grandmother Georgia (Jane Fonda). Lilly and Georgia do not get on, Lilly riling under her mother's regimented lifestyle, all codified under the phrase: "Georgia rule!"
Too little transpires before Rachel reveals to the local vetrinarian/MD Simon (Dermot Mulrony), an old flame of her mothers, that her step-father sexually assaulted her when she was twelve.
This is where the otherwise brilliantly played out and excellently comedic story begins to falter. It is not the sudden plot twist that wrecks it, it is the presence of too much plot full stop.
Lilly has issues, Georgia has issues, my God does Rachel have issues. Lilly's ex-flame has issues. Rachel local bit of stuff Harlan (Garrett Hedlund) has issues. Everyone has issues and it just becomes too complex to reasonably resolve everything satisfactorily. As a result the end is an expected disappointment.
The cast all give performances that should be hands down excellent. But there is still something unspeakably wrong.
Fonda, however, is not alone. Felecity Huffman, in the part of Lilly, is similarly displaced. An alcoholic mother of one and used-to-be-wild-child, Huffman does her best with a part conflicted as it is conflicting. Lilly's story is all over the place and never finds a settling conclusion. Moreover, Felcity Huffman does not feel right as Jane Fonda's daughter or as Lindsay Lohan's mother!
Lohan's act is a hard one to describe. She does a good job, not enough to convert her from a party-girl into a serious actress, but a decent job. It's really quite difficult to imagine anyone else playing the part as Lohan presently seems to be the only late-teen-age girl who can act - convincingly! Her chemistry with both Fonda and Huffman is seriously lacking, though she gells extremely well with her male co-stars.
Dermot Mulrony plays faded stud (as usual) while Cary Elwes) plays the bastard, a part he is more and more often sidelines into these days. Their performances are decent.
The true surprise package of the male cast is Garret Hedlund, who, fresh from such pretty-boy action-puff such as the roles of Patrocluc in Troy and Murtagh in Eragon, gives an, edgy, boyish and thoroughly convincing performance in a character who should have been just so much formula. Just find a muscled hunk, a spray tan and add water. Not so here. Hedlund will be back in better roles - hopefully!
The greatest flaw of Georgia Rule must finally lay with its director Gary Marshall, who has directed enough romantic comedies in his time to have known better. Georgia Rule could have been a comic movie with a very important dramatic story to tell. The problem is he doesn't let his actresses tell it!
Even in some of their most serious scenes, Fonda and Huffman both play for laughs. Lohan suffers less from the same syndrome having less opportunity to do so. One particularly botched scene has Fonda informing her son-in-law that "if it weren't for the fact that my daughter loves you, I'd kill you!" That isn't a line for a laugh, and yet that's how Marshall has her play it. Similarly when Huffman finely learns the truth from her husband she runs at him screaming and begins to pummel him with her purse - again Marshall has this actress, capable of such brilliant drama, play the scene for laughs! It was a critical misjudgement. That said, there are still moments when Marshall has developed fine performamces from his three leads. Fonda more than anyone else has moments (moments only true) of absolute brilliance.
All in all Georgia Rule must be accussed of being a rambling and self-indulgent story that squanders its brilliant cast and what might have been a classic story along the lines of On Golden Pond meets Marvin's Room. Frankly had it not been such a meeting it probably would have been a better story.
Given its subject matter it is clearly more suited for more mature audiences, so don't take the kids along to see it. However, if you are after a good laugh and story that demands thought without giving you brain fry then Georgia Rule will not disappoint. You will walk out of the cinema disappointed, but at the very least you will have had fun, for at its core Georgia Rule is funny with beauty and heart. A shoulda-coulda-woulda classic it is just a hop (bad writing) skip (misdirected) and a jump (questionable casting) away from being brilliant.
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