The weather outside may dictate that summer is already upon us, but before three months of “three-quels,” other franchise flicks and colorfully watered down genre product descends upon us, Universal is out to shanghai potentially unsuspecting viewers with one last sour-sweet spring surprise. Georgia Rule is a film about secrets and lies, and the manner in which mistreatment and violation unchecked breed more dysfunction. The film’s tagline — about attitude not skipping a generation — is true in the very loosest sense, but the issues churning underneath this estrogenized dramedy are surprising if somewhat disarming for a May studio release with this high of a profile and hearty P&A budget.

Lindsay Lohan stars as Rachel Wilcox, a spitfire party girl given to blurted exclamations, unapologetic flights of fancy and physical acting out, all of which serve as an obvious mask for some scarcely hidden psychological damage. Felicity Huffman is her exasperated mother, and Jane Fonda her estranged grandmother, with whom Rachel gets dumped to live in small town Idaho for the summer. Georgia Rule is characterized by what might be called not so much a novelistic depth as a certain independent-minded whimsicality. Not all of it really works — in fact, it's what you could rightly call an interesting failure — but there's an at-odds variance with much of this time of year's Hollywood studio product that makes it a welcome-enough visitor, and part of the film's saving grace, ironically, may be just the off-screen image of careening, wild-child disregard that’s dinged Lohan's previous efforts to be taken seriously, in fare like A Prairie Home Companion and Bobby. Rachel is a mess, but in a very specific and determinable way, and Lohan imbues in her a sense of wounded, nervy grace. For the full review, from FilmStew, click here.

        

 

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