Jennifer Fallon - the Official Site

Georgia Rule tells the story of troubled teen, Rachel Wilcox, who is banished to her strict grandmother’s house in Idaho for the summer, in a vain attempt to straighten her out. Lindsay Lohan (typecasting, much?) is utterly believable as Rachel, the only difference apparently, between her character and the real life Lindsay, being the lack of paparazzi following Rachel around (although she does pick up a bunch of stalking Mormon schoolgirls. Really.).

Anyway, the film trots along in a fairly predictable bad-girl-sees-the-error-of-her- ways-and-learns- to-be-good-with-grandma’s-small-town-wisdom fashion. A spanner is thrown into the works, however, when Rachel tells summer-job boss, local veterinarian (and unofficial doctor), Simon Ward (Dermot Mulrooney) that her stepfather has been molesting her since she was 12 years old.

Simon reports this disturbing news to Rachel’s grandmother, Georgia (Jane Fonda), who questions Rachel and believing it to be true, calls her mother, Lilly (Felicity Huffman), and tells her about it. The news devastates Lilly and of course, top lawyer and all-round nice guy stepdad with large chequebook, Arthur (Cary Elwes), denies the accusation. (Point of order here... I never really understood why you’d pack your troubled teen off to the mother you hated and blamed for your own drinking problem, thinking somehow she’d succeed where you failed, in the first place, but this only one of many “what the?” moments that spoil what could have been an interesting film.)

There are a few distractions thrown in, with Rachel causing a kerfuffle among the local Mormon community by giving hottie cowboy Harland more than he bargained for on a fishing trip, but other than eye candy for the Lohan fan-base demographic, I’m not sure Garret Hedlund’s character served any useful purpose in the plot. Rachel is damaged enough in her relationships with every other man she meets, that we get the idea something is badly awry.

The movie, in the end, comes to down to who is telling the truth and who is lying. Or at least it should have been about that. Rachel, who changes her story constantly, is obviously acting out some deep trauma, and nice-guy Arthur seems too decent to be doing anything so horrendous. So who do you believe? The junkie rebellious daughter or the respectable lawyer dad?

Unfortunately, what should have been a fascinating study of the affect such a dreadful accusation has on a family gets a few scant minutes on screen with mum falling off the wagon in a fairly spectacular way, so we understand the full impact of this terrible news on her (what about the kid???). But then comes the far too glib and contrived ending. Instead of a thought-provoking study, the movie goes the route of happy-ending chick-flick. I was so disappointed. This film deserved something more realistic, because the story is really is a great idea, with an excellent cast, looking for a script that doesn’t dodge the uncomfortable issues it raises.