By Jae-Ha Kim
Amazon.com
May 11. 2007
When three generations of women collide, it isn’t always pretty. In Georgia Rule, Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls) stars as Rachel, a wild child whose mother Lilly (Felicity Huffman, Desperate Housewives) ships her off to Idaho to be tamed by Georgia (Jane Fonda, On Golden Pond)–Lilly’s own cantankerous mom.
There, 17-year-old Rachel shocks the conservative community with her short shorts, eager sexuality (which she plies on everyone from 12-year-old boys to unsophisticated, but hot, Mormon neighbors), and her tales of possible sexual abuse at the hands of her somewhat slimy stepfather (Cary Elwes, The Princess Bride).
As directed by Garry Marshall (Beaches, Pretty Woman), Georgia Rule is a flawed chick flick where the women are tolerable but not particularly likeable. The characters we want to know more about are the peripheral ones we don’t see enough of–the men.
Simon (Dermot Mulroney), the kindly (and sexy) veterinarian who was once madly in love with Lilly, in many ways is the film’s moral compass. A widower whose wife and son died tragically in an accident, Simon would’ve made a more compelling movie subject than these women.
And for all his latent pining for Lilly, the moviegoer feels relieved for him that dodged a bullet by not marrying into this dysfunctional family.
While the female leads aren’t quite believable as mother, daughter, and grandmother, they all have strong moments in the film that save it from being a groaning mess. Lohan doesn’t exhibit the charm she displayed in Mean Girls, but she more than holds her own in parts with the scene-stealing Fonda, who is quite good at chewing up the scenery.
