Production Company: Universal Pictures
Director: Garry Marshall
Cast: Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan, Felicity Huffman, Dermot Mulroney, Cary Elwes, Garrett Hedlund
Rating: Rated R for language and sexual situations.

By Gregg Tubbs

(UMC.org)—How hard is it to love someone you can’t trust? What happens when even family bonds are strained by someone who betrays your trust time and time again? Is there a bond between mothers and daughters even stronger than love itself—a bond tough enough to revive dormant love? Georgia Rule is an odd comedy that also has some very serious issues on its mind. With three generations of heavy hitting stars—Jane Fonda, Felicity Huffman and Lindsay Lohan—Georgia Rule is like white water rafting through treacherous familial rapids. Sometimes you laugh, sometimes you scream, and throughout, you hope the family raft manages to hold together.

If I could propose a rule of my own for the makers of Georgia Rule, it would be "promote the film you made, not the film you think will sell tickets." Georgia Rule is a good little film, but nothing like I expected: a much lighter, multi-generational comedy about plucky, "women with attitude" who pull together against some external threat. That’s how the film has been promoted. Instead, what I found was an imperfect, but engrossing interpersonal drama about three troubled women whose primary conflict is with each other. Although the film does contain lots of humor, it reminds me of Thelma and Louise, which found humor and a rousing "girl-power" in the midst of some very dark issues.

Georgia Rule brings us three generations of strong-willed women in an often comical and sometimes heart-wrenching story about trust, redemption, forgiveness and the unbreakable bonds of motherhood. Copyright © 2007 Universal Pictures.

Helmed by director Garry Marshall ("Pretty Woman"), Georgia Rule brings us three generations of strong-willed women in an often comical and sometimes heart-wrenching story about trust, redemption, forgiveness and the unbreakable bonds of motherhood. But mostly the film is about the truth—knowing the difference between the truth and a lie, being truthful with those you love, and being truthful with yourself.

Rich, rebellious, provocative and profane Rachel (Lohan) is a teenage Lolita heading down the wrong path. After her latest car crash, her mother, Lilly, is fed up and sends Rachel to live with her strict, small-town grandmother, Georgia (Fonda). This is a desperate decision for Lilly (Huffman), whose own relationship with the no-nonsense Georgia is so strained that they haven’t seen each other for years. In fact, Rachel and her grandmother have been apart since she was a baby. Lilly stays only long enough to give us a glimpse at the gulf between her and Georgia. She tells Georgia that she and Rachel had a fight along the way and that Rachel would arrive later on foot.

Only later did I realize that this family is so broken that all three don’t appear onscreen together for the first time until the film is half over. By then, Rachel has scandalized the town by seducing a straight-laced Mormon boy; Lilly has shown herself to be a serious alcoholic, dependent on her new husband Arnold’s money; and Georgia’s reveals that her many "rules" are a defensive mechanism to impose order on a disappointing world. Her "Georgia Rules" are legion and inflexible: dinner at six, no alcohol in the house, no taking the Lord’s name in vain. These rules drove Lilly out when she was Rachel’s age, and now it’s Rachel’s turn to rebel.

The unshakeable bonds between mother (Felicity Huffman) and daughter (Lindsay Lohan) ultimately do their work, but it takes a crisis to actually force them back together. Copyright © 2007 Universal Pictures.

Those unshakeable bonds between mother and daughter ultimately do their work, but it takes a crisis to actually force the three of them back together. Rachel lets it slip—first to the town vet (and Lilly’s ex beau), Simon (Dermot Mulroney), and then to Georgia—that her stepfather has been sexually molesting her for years. This brings boozy Lilly rushing back for a showdown because she is convinced Rachel is lying. And that’s the problem—she just might be! Rachel uses both her sexuality and chronic lying to get what she wants and to control or hurt the people in her life.

What’s interesting about Georgia Rule is that it takes the type of rebellious, selfish teenager Lohan has made a career playing and actually delves into the reasons she became that way. And in so doing, the story traces the troubles and disconnects back through her mother to her grandmother. We discover that even the upright and orderly Georgia has secrets and failings that have indirectly contributed to Rachel's rebelliousness.

Their road to becoming a loving family is a long one. Simon captures it perfectly as he rebuffs another of Rachel’s lies, "You just don’t know right from wrong or the truth from a lie. If you don’t know what’s true, you can’t trust; and if you can’t trust, you can’t love." In the end, that's a pretty good message from a pretty good film.

Study Questions:

Some of the main themes of Georgia Rule were love, trust and forgiveness. Can you think of others? Discuss how these themes are handled in the film. How do they connect to each other?
How and why did Lilly rebel against Georgia? How did her estrangement from Georgia affect how she raised Rachel?
How did Rachel relate to her sexuality? How does she use it a means of control or rebellion?
Did Rachel use sexuality as a replacement for real intimacy? Why do you think this might have been the case?
How did Georgia hide behind her rules? How can strict adherence to rules or the "letter of the law" sometimes distract us recognizing the real purpose and "spirit" of the rule? How does this compare to Jesus' encounters with the Pharisees, who interpreted many of Jesus' actions as breaking the sacred rules and traditions of Judaism? (See Luke 11:37-54, for example.)
Has anyone tried to impose their rules on you? How did you feel?
What do you think are God’s rules? Are there any you struggle with?
Georgia refused to use the Lord’s name in vain, but did use profanity. How did you feel about that? Would you call Georgia a Christian?
Do you believe there is a special bond between mothers and daughters? Can this bond overcome problems? Does God have a bond of love with us? How does God’s love transcend the sin and rebellion that separates us from true relationship with God?
Simon said there can be no love without trust. Do you agree? Have you ever tried to love someone you couldn’t trust? Can we trust in God and God's love?