A far better, more absorbing melodrama than its titular conceit would have you expect.
Georgia Rule (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:116
Fresh:20
Rotten:96
Average Rating:3.9/10
Consensus: Comedic and dramatic in all the wrong places, Georgia Rule is a confused dramedy that wastes the talents of its fine cast.
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Gary Marshall's GEORGIA RULE brings together Lindsay Lohan, Jane Fonda, and Felicity Huffman to play three generations in need of one another's guidance in this story about the bonds between... Gary Marshall's GEORGIA RULE brings together Lindsay Lohan, Jane Fonda, and Felicity Huffman to play three generations in need of one another's guidance in this story about the bonds between three equally feisty women. When teen troublemaker Rachel (Lohan) pushes her alcoholic mother, Lilly (Huffman), over the edge, it becomes the responsibility of her grandmother, Georgia (Fonda), to set things straight. But even getting from San Francisco to Georgia's home in Mormon country proves difficult, with Rachel literally jumping out of the car and flirtatiously hitching a ride from handsome but guarded stranger Simon (Dermot Mulroney). No one in town is ready for Rachel, whose manic sexuality and screw-you attitude is a stark contrast to the strict Mormon values most of the local residents live by. Rachel's arrival and drama-filled stay force everyone she meets to question their way of life. Meanwhile, Georgia force-feeds Rachel the stern structure her own mother was too inebriated to offer, and while Rachel adamantly resists at first, she slowly starts to change, thanks to her grandmother's tough love. The early tone of the film abruptly changes when Rachel makes a bold and disturbing confession, but then takes it back, forcing everyone around her to figure out the truth on their own. For the rest of the film, characters scramble to navigate Rachel's lies and to decipher the truth from her statements. Viewers are kept equally in the dark, as GEORGIA RULE struggles to be both a comedy and a serious drama. Shifting back and forth somewhat clumsily, the film does offer some funny moments, but dwells on issues far too unsettling to pass itself off as a lighthearted "chick flick." While the film seems unsure at times of its goal, it does feature strong performances from its leads: three women who are more similar than any of them would like to admit. [More]
Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Felicity Huffman, Jane Fonda, Dermot Mulroney
Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Felicity Huffman, Jane Fonda, Dermot Mulroney, Garrett Hedlund, Cary Elwes
Director: Garry Marshall
Director: Garry Marshall
Screenwriter: Mark Andrus
Producer: David C. Robinson, James G. Robinson
Composer: John Debney
Studio: Universal Pictures
Reviews for Georgia Rule
Combines battleship actresses of the Steel Magnolias variety, fall-down-go-boom comedy that was obsolete in the '30s, Lindsay Lohan's cleavage and intergenerational fondling just for kicks.
With this film's top-notch acting ensemble, Georgia Rule has the sad taint of what might have been.
It's the sort of you'll-laugh-you'll-cry drivel that's so beneath its talented cast you have to wonder how everyone ended up here -- sort of like Custer and his Last Stand.
A berserk combination of tasteless comedy and even more tasteless melodrama.
If you're able to ignore all the lameness around it, some of this is actually enjoyable in a so-wrong-it's-right, Showgirls-style way.
Lohan hits a true note of spiteful princess narcissism. Unfortunately, it's the only note the film allows her to play.
Three talented women--Fonda, Huffman, Lohan--are totally wasted in this disappointingly written and acted chick flick that can't decide if it's a comedy or drama about child and sexual abuse and thus goes back and forth in convoluted, manipulative way.
The film's blueness (in an X-rated sense) will turn some faces red, have the guys in the audience panting, and burn Lohan's name into the marquee.
The subject matter is grim, the relationships are gnarled, the worldview is bleak, and, at any given moment, you suspect someone’s going to be hit with a pie.
This strained dramedy falls well outside of the director's comfort level.
The audience may want to know nothing more than, Will Lohan look as good as Fonda a half-century from now?
In the end, it's just another concoction of unbelievable characters doing unbelievable things, and telling us nothing we haven't heard before.
So facile that it posits "I love you" as the quick-fix remedy for its characters' myriad, deeply rooted grievances.
Convoluted, contrived and cliche'-ridden, evoking Robert Frost's "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in."
Written with an ear for both comedy and painful intra-family relationships, Georgia Rule exceeds expectations with a smart yet sensitive screenplay and performances that work the drama as a way to wring humour from the characters.
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