eric262003 What a difference three years makes. Back in 2004 Lindsay Lohan was wickedly fresh as a daisy in the teenage drama "Mean Girls". Three years later in "Georgia Rule", I look at her and I ask myself, what happened? I mean she's still got some sort of physical attraction here, but compared to "Mean Girls", she looks jaded and looking like she's entering into a world of sorrow and lament. It feels like she's aged drastically. At the time Lohan was 21 years old, but in "Georgia Rule", she looks like she's aged to 31."Georgia Rule" is equally disjointed and out of focus as Lohan's physical presence. It's kind of a sinister, out of touch film that focuses primarily on three generations of the Wilcox/Randall family clan. Wehave the tough and disciplined grandmother Georgia Randall (Jane Fonda),the ever inebriated mother Lilly (Felicity Huffman) and the rebellious,sex-craving daughter, Rachel (Lohan). The idea of an out-of control daughter may have some levels of intrigue, but director Garry Marshall and screenwriter Mark Andrus turn a blind eye towards her incorrigible ways. Let alone the fact that Miss Lohan looks less like a teenager and more like a lounge singer playing Broadway musicals in karaoke bars.Maybe it might work in the Hollywood industry, but switch to reality for just a second, but if the opening scenes feature a teenage daughter, belittling, ostracizing and verbally bullying your own mother, you're all programmed to hate this snotty little punk. Oh, that's right, Rachel is an angry late adolescent who's so undisciplined that her mother made her leave her home in San Francisco to spend some time at grandma's house in Idaho, where she's hopes will set her straight. Where's the responsibility mom? Or is something I like to call an urban renewal?Does Grandma Georgia really need an incorrigible child placed at her doorstep? She's a women of moral restriction with an obsessive compulsiveness for tight, at the exact minute of scheduling, even though she seems lenient towards the neighborhood children. But she still dwells back to the fact her daughter's a drunk and her granddaughter is out-of-control and promiscuous. The purpose of this story is that in spite all their shortcomings, they love each other. But it's panned out in the cruelest of taste.The tone of the film is extremely jarring it left me wondering are these people for real? The movie was made to have a light drama with touches of comedy for good measure. But I felt very little in lightness or anything I could pass off as comical. This movie was cynical in approach and Marshall gave us the impression that his audience are as mixed up as the characters on screen.One supposed "funny" scene has Rachel making lustful passes with an overly religious Mormon named Harlan Wilson (Garrett Hedlund) then performing off camera oral sex. It gets better! There's a scene where she threatens these goody-goody Mormon girls to engage in lascivious relations with their boyfriends. In other words, be like her and you will be "cool". But is she "cool"? Not in the slightest, in fact I find her and her dysfunctional family nothing more than hypocrites who preach but don't practice.Here we have Rachel threatening these girls she will get all raunchy with their other halves and yet we get a revealing that Rachel's step-father, Arnold (Cary Elwes) sexually molested her. By now Lilly is now a full-blown inebriate. Which is strange because Grandma Georgia disallows alcoholism in her household and yet she's got shelves of booze to keep Lilly amused as she's lying in her underwear getting stewed. This is a horrible family with horrible people and it sickens me that Fonda, Huffman and Lohan are incredibly talented performers makes it even harder to swallow. It's not that they're wasting away here every foundation of this movie is based off of lies. It tries to be truthful, but fails at every attempt.The sexual abuse subplot is the the hardest one to take into account because of the hypocrisy that comes all around. We get cringing jokes about oral sex and yet you have Rachel, flaunting around town engaging in sexual activities with the town. But then we're supposed to feel sorry for her once the serious topic of sexual abuse comes around and we're forced into thinking she's just a poor lost soul. Like we should just forget about all the heartbreak Rachel has because we don't approve of her stepfather who sexually abused her when she was twelve.

Danii Disaster Well, it was entertaining enough, but...This movie was marketed as a comedy, which is totally inaccurate since there are surprisingly few "funny" moments. For some people probably none at all.It was not the light-hearted comedy I thought it was going to be. It's quite a serious movie that deals with serious issues.Lindsay Lohan did a fine job... portraying her real-life self. She was so convincing as a spoiled stuck-up party girl because she didn't have to act.Also, there was zero chemistry between characters and you could actually tell that they can't stand / couldn't care less for each other. None of them seem to have bothered to "own" their respective roles; instead, they just showed up and did their jobs -- that's the vibe you get from this movie.Nevertheless, it's quite an O.K. movie -- for those interested in this genre (drama).

alicecbr As a victim of abuse my self, I can well understand the denial of the mother, especially if she was already a boozer. The grandmother, so well played by Jane Fonda, obviously felt the guilt from turning her own child into an alcoholic, who then allowed this abuse to go on under her roof. She became the typical non-defending parent.The scene with Delmot Maroney (simon) in which he talks to her about the different kinds of love between an older man and a young woman (friend, parent) that differs from the abusive kind, rings quite true. Because, for people like us, it's hard to tell the difference as you emerge from your parental Hell.You only know how to relate in a sexual manner with any man. It takes a lot of education and experience to learn to appreciate and enjoy the other kinds of love and affection. Until then, it all seems fake. Don't know what the reviewers had to say about this, but I appreciate Jane and Gary for actually tackling such a loaded subject.

edwagreen There are too many stories within the main story here. Jane Fonda's perfection of a mother is a story in itself. The hangups of widower Dermott Mulroney are also interesting. A Mormon guy (Cary Elwes) wants to go to do missionary work for 2 years, but at the same time he is conflicted about his current life.All this serves as the backdrop to the real theme of the daughter of Fonda, an alcoholic, whose second husband may have sexually abused her daughter.The performances here are all quite good. The big surprise is Lindsay Lohan. If she'd only get her act together in real life, she could definitely be a star in the making.The movie has a really important theme,but there are too many subordinate clauses that should have been dealt with.Had this movie been 35+ years ago, Fonda would have been a sensation in the Lohan part, a rebel in every way possible.