But fail it does, and oh so, so miserably. The premise seems a tad predictable in itself- three generations of dysfunctional women come together in a small Southern town and, despite their differences, end up bonding through alterna-country music, charmingly down-home and shirtless men, and pie. Well okay, maybe there was no pie. That was wishful thinking on my part. But the rest of it has been done, both well and not-so-well, before. I thought I knew what I was in for. I thought that in order for this generational melodrama to work, all it needed the right balance of soap opera and comedy, plus characters that the audience could care about.
What we got, instead, was Lindsay Lohan.
Or rather, Rachel, a young high school graduate who comes with her own personal dysfunction shield in the form of a spray-on tan and couldn’t-care-less attitude (but she’s still oh-so-smart underneath, as her roughly bound prop novels and knowledge of Ezra Pound should indicate). It is unclear whether we are supposed to sympathize with Rachel or hate her, but I started to lean towards the latter, and rather quickly. She shows herself right off the bat to be spoiled, bratty, and high on her own scratchy voice and sense of randomness. Plus she’s kind of slutty (but it’s okay, because that’s all explained later).
Felicity Huffman’s Lily is no picnic either, and as the alcoholic, chain-smoking mother of Rachel, she deposits her rebellious daughter in Idaho for the summer with her own mother, Georgia (Jane Fonda). Georgia is a woman so strictly set in her ways and her rules (Georgia Rules, get it?) that she had driven her daughter away years before. Oh, the cross-generational drama. Here is where there should have been a Dixie Chicks montage. Here is where there should have been sweet, slightly complicated love interests and moderate character growth. Here is where the women should have worked out their problems, preferably over pie.
Instead, the tone of the movie bounces a different way entirely; throwing a dark and disburbing plot twist into the relationship between Rachel and Lily, and also neatly explaining up Rachel’s horrid personality traits. This is where the film makes its mistake- by tackling such an issue in what was advertised and marketed as a light romantic comedy. Because it all feels out of place. There is no room in this film for such dark topics, and yet they are crammed in anyway, making everything lighthearted about the movie feel awkward and unnatural.
And that is ultimately where the movie fails, in that it tries to be light mother/daughter fare while also tackling the harsher emotions and plots usually best left to indie films. It’s just plain…unsettling. I know this is an odd complaint, as I was mocking the unoriginal premise of the movie in the opening of this review, and it would seem that an unforeseen change in tone could provide just the amount of unique depth needed to spice up a by-the-numbers chick flick. And I’m sure someday, there will be a way to combine both of these things in a thoughtful, funny movie. But that movie sure isn’t Georgia Rule. No cigar, Mr. Marshall.
So is there anything redeeming here? Well, at one point, Jane Fonda tells Lindsay Lohan to go fuck herself. That’s pretty fun.
On the other hand, where the hell is my pie?
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