Grand-Mommie dearest

"You don't look evil" - Rachel
"Makeup helps" - Georgia

This story of three dysfunctional women in a collapsing family totters sometimes precariously on the edge of being either a comedy or a melodrama. But the dialogue manages to be both witty and abrasive yet with some pathos. Rachel Wilcox (Lindsay Lohan) is a teenager in rebellion against just about everything and everyone. She lashes out swearing and screaming and is just beyond control. So after Rachel manages to crash her car, alcoholic mother Lilly (Felicity Huffman) takes the wild young thing loudly protesting back to Rachel's grandmother Georgia (Jane Fonda) in the remote Idaho town of Hull. Even though Lilly is not on good terms with Georgia, Lilly wants her daughter to spend summer there in the quiet town well away from trouble and cop some well earned old fashioned discipline from Grandma.

Georgia operates her household by a set of unbending rules, God first and hard work second. Georgia seems incapable of saying she loves Lilly or Rachel, her excuse is her parents never said they loved her. The rebellious Rachel will test her patience to the limit as she tries to understand the girl's unreasonable anger. The quiet little religious community is rudely awakened by this outrageous new arrival. But Rachel has a dark secret which will heighten the problems for the already antagonistic women, and dramatically change their lives yet in the end bind them more closely together. Important also to the story are Lilly's old boyfriend Simon (Dermot Mulroney) now a vet acting as doctor in the Idaho township, Lilly's husband and Rachel's smarmy stepfather Arnold (Cary Elwes) and Harlan (Garrett Hedlund) a shy local Mormon lad who is the subject of some very amorous advances by Rachel.

The teenager from hell is played most effectively by Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls, Bobby, A Prairie Home Companion) who seems to relish the part. She certainly is a hot little number wearing skimpy outfits that have much on display, and vamping unmercifully any men she comes in contact with. If there is a gong in Hollywood for the shortest skirt with the longest legs she's a moral to get it.

While both Jane Fonda (Monster in Law, Klute, Coming Home, They Shoot Horses Don't They) and Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives, Transamerica) also give excellent performances, the star of this show is undoubtedly Lindsay Lohan for her energetic and enthusiastic portrayal of the young vixen. She is provocative and street smart having to manage the transition from wildly out of control to morally wounded. The remarkable Jane Fonda certainly keeps up with her younger co-stars and one could have wished her role was expanded a little, while Felicity Huffman is proving she has considerable talent for the large screen.

The sharp script is by Mark Andrus, while confident direction from Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman, The Princess Diaries) keeps the film moving along at a good pace. The production values are smooth as silk with that Hollywood spit and polish to the images. The comfortable friendly but dull feeling of the small Idaho town is convincingly recreated (actually in Southern California) before its peace is shattered by Rachel's appearance on the scene.

Having just seen one movie about mother-daughter relationships which was a waste of space, I was not really looking forward to seeing Georgia Rule however it was a pleasant surprise as an entertaining funny dramatic even moving film.

John Bale

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Georgia Rule

Our rating:

Director: Garry Marshall
Cast: Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan, Cary Elwes, Dermot Mulroney and Felicity Huffman
Release: 10 May, 2007
Rated: M

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