A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Georgia Rule

Date Viewed: 5/20/07

Details:

Jane Fonda

Lindsay Lohan

Felicity Huffman

Dermot Mulroney

Cary Elwes

Garrett Hedlund

Director: Garry Marshall

Score: +

The Review: The women in this family are all seriously damaged goods -- good though.

Welcome to Hull, Idaho -- about as far from California as it's possible to get, in a psychological sense, which is what matters for this movie. Hull is the intended destination for young Rachel (Lohan), who's essentially being sentenced to summer purgatory with grandma Georgia (Fonda), and being driven there (figuratively and literally) by her entirely unsympathetic mother, Lilly (Huffman). All of the women in this occasionally funny character study have major attitude, as well as significant issues with responsibility, trust and love: Rachel is a pathological liar and manipulative bitch, Lilly a closet drunk, and Georgia simply cold and over-regimented. It's amazing that anyone in this family ever survived childhood. There's a lot of tension -- and tension released -- but unlike a lot of angst-ridden contemporary dramas, here you're not embarrassed and cringing watching it happen; it's not all good news, but it works. And it is a surprisingly decent movie, considering all the bitches and bitching.

The men are not uninteresting, either. Mulroney is good as the town vet (and, on the sly, the people doctor, as well). Hedlund (an unknown to me) plays his son, who aspires to be a Mormon missionary and is trying to keep himself pure -- but with Rachel on his case, you can guess this won't last for long. And Elwes (who's come a long way, and more than a few pounds, from Westley and the dread Pirate Roberts in Princess Bride), is the slime-ball lawyer currently married to Lilly, making him Rachel's step-dad.

(20-May-07)

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