Reviewer's grade: D
Director Garry Marshall wastes a lot of acting talent in "Georgia Rule," a melodramedy about messed-up mother-daughter relationships mismarketed as a comedic chick flick with light dramatic overtones.
Starring Jane Fonda as Georgia, she who makes the rules; Felicity Huffman as Lilly, the daughter who breaks them; and Lindsay Lohan as Rachel, the granddaughter who jumps up and down on the shards to reduce them to dust, the film tackles a lot of weighty subjects, yet doesn't succeed in saying anything intelligent about any of them.
At film's end, we know sexual abuse of children, substance abuse and emotionally unavailable parents are bad, but I'm not sure what we know is good. Love seems to fall into that category, but the film is so muddled in what it has to say about that complex subject that I'm not really sure where it ends up "? intentionally or unintentionally "? about this or any of its other heavy topics. R
- Kathryn Jenson White
