Georgia Rule Review

From the commercial I had seen about Georgia Rule it looked like a fun heartwarming family movie about 3 generations of women in one family.  I finally got the movie in my mail box a few days ago (Netflix).  And while this movie is certainly a heartwarming story about 3 generations of women, there is also a much sadder, and horrible element to the story.

Lily (Felicity Huffman) is desperate she is at her wits end with her rebellious daughter Rachael (played by Lindsay Lohan) and no longer knows what to do with her.  Lily had always tried to raise her daughter completely different from the way she was raised by her rigid, and strict mother Georgia (played by Jane Fonda).  Georgia had always had a set of rules that she has lived by, and never veered away from them.  But as Lily becomes more desperate to get her daughter to have a little more structure she decides that spending some time with Georgia might be just what she needs, and brings Rachael to Idaho to spend the summer with her grandmother.  This is the final summer before Rachael would be going to college.

At first Rachel seems like a whole bundle of trouble as she tries really hard to get the attention of every man she comes in contact with.  Including a young man who doesn't believe in sex before marriage.  But we soon find out why she acts the way she does.  Georgia has set up a job for her where she will be working for Simon (Dermot Mulroney) he is the towns Dr. and Veterinarian.  He is also a widower and a respectable man.  He is not the kind of man that will take advantage of a very young woman with issues.  To him she is just a child, but they devolop kind of a father daughter type friendly relationship and Rachel trusts him.  When she is first getting to know Simon she kind of blurts out in conversation that her step father had sexually abused her. Of course Simon who knows Georgia very well, and in fact dated Lily many years ago, told Georgia right away what Rachel had said. 

Georgia of course confronts Rachel and Rachel tries to deflect the question and runs off, so Georgia knows that it is true and calls Lily right away.  Lily comes to Idaho immediately to confront her daughter about what she says, and parts of her thinks that Rachel is lying.

Lily is faced with trying to find the truth, and torn by the love of her daughter, and the lost trust of her husband, Rachel is girl that is all messed up and trying to figure things out for herself, and Georgia is a mother faced with watching and trying to help her daughter get through one of the worse things that could possibly happen to her, as she tries to figure out how to handle her own pain and help her daughter.  Georgia and Lily also have issues of their own that need to be worked through.

The movie is very emotional and is very touching.  Huffman, Lohan and Fonda all do a beautiful job of showing the strength and the love of these three women as they try to deal with their own pain of a bad situation and also love each other through it.