Georgia Rule ***

By Dan Hudak

      You’d have trouble finding two actresses who’ve endured more hatred than Jane Fonda and Lindsay Lohan. In 1972, Fonda openly spoke in favor of the North Vietnamese and said U.S. soldiers were “war criminals” for claiming they were tortured in P.O.W. camps. At a book signing shortly after the war, a Vietnam veteran spit on her.

Lohan has faced media overexposure from her feud with Hilary Duff, disputes over her breast size, dangerous eating disorder and erratic behavior. In fact, it was on the set of “Georgia Rule” that she received a letter from the studio chief calling her a “spoiled child” whose “irresponsible and unprofessional” conduct has endangered the production. Hanging out with Paris Hilton certainly doesn’t help either.

      And so it’s with curious, scandal mongering eyes that one watches “Georgia Rule” and looks for even the faintest signs of dissension and turmoil. There are none. To the gossipy chagrin of many, this is a well acted, moving film with a pull-no-punches script that never gets too sentimental.

      Lohan plays Rachel, a bratty 17 year-old who has become so intolerable to her mother, Lily (Felicity Huffman), and stepfather (Cary Elwes) that they’ve sent her to suburban Idaho for the summer to live with Lily’s mother, Georgia (Fonda). Rachel is forced by her grandmother to work at a local doctor’s (Dermot Mulroney) office, where she develops a bit more than a school girl crush on her employer. She’s also interested in a local farmer named Harlan (Garrett Hedlund), a devout Mormon who finds her hard to resist.

      If you think you know where this is going, you’re wrong. This is not a sappy story about the rebellious teen who learns life lessons from her strict grandmother. It’s smarter than that, and a better movie because of it. Suffice it to say that Rachel’s constant need for attention and affection drives the script by Mark Andrus (“As Good As It Gets”) to a complex and unpleasant level that reveals dormant truths about the three generations of women.

      Acting is paramount in director Garry Marshall’s (“Pretty Woman”) films, and the two time Oscar-winning Fonda can still deliver a zinger with the best of them. Huffman is one of the best actresses working today, and in truth deserved to be discovered long before the success of “Desperate Housewives” and “Transamerica.” The two also work very well together as they argue about their own mother/daughter issues, and it’s a credit to Marshall that the strife between Lily and Georgia, although never quite fully realized, is still given credence as the main storyline unfolds.

      Here’s what is often forgotten about Lohan due to her tabloid troubles: she truly is a talented actress with a great screen presence. She can make us laugh and feel sorry for her with ease, and at no point is she overshadowed here by her two more experienced co-stars. Whether you like her or not, if “Georgia Rule” is any indication she probably has a bright future ahead of her. That’s on the condition, of course, that she doesn’t Tom Cruise her career. 

Comments? E-mail dhudak22@yahoo.com