Knight at the Movies Archives
Strong females figure prominently in both the latest from two directors with the same initials - Garry Marshall and Guy Maddin
Based on the purported off screen antics during the shooting of Georgia Rule tabloid favorite Lindsay Lohan would seem like a
God send for the troubled chick flick genre which has been on life support as of late.  Famously chastised due to “unprofessional
conduct” (i.e. hard partying) by the studio head and co-star Jane Fonda, Lohan’s alleged behavior has the advantage of closely
mirroring the character she plays in the movie which might help bring in nosy audiences eager to make comparisons between the
real and imagined.  But curiosity factor notwithstanding, the wobbly
Georgia Rule isn’t likely to help restore the women’s picture genre
to prominence or profitability.

As a devoted fan of chick flicks I’m not happy to report this.  I wanted to like
Georgia Rule the way I wanted to like The Divine Secrets
of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
after falling for their trailers and opening segments.  But both movies veer far from the heartwarming female
generation gap dramedies they promise at their outset into much darker territory.  
Sisterhood’s real focus was clinical depression and
Georgia’s is sexual abuse.  Not surprising, therefore, to learn that both scripts were written by Mark Andrus (albeit the first was an
adaptation of a best selling novel by another writer).  It’s also not surprising to learn that if
Georgia Rule works at all – which it does
in fits and starts – it has little to do with the look, sound and feel of the picture but because of the acting skills of its three women
stars (Lohan, Fonda and Felicity Huffman).  This is, after all, a Garry Marshall movie, director of
Pretty Women and The Princess Diaries
and a lot of listless dreck in-between.  
As I’ve noted before a Marshall picture succeeds or fails based on the star wattage of his cast
and in
Georgia Rule he’s got that in spades.  

Tabloid princess she may be but Lohan is also a very appealing, accessible actress; a natural in front of the camera who more than
holds her own with Fonda and Huffman.  Lohan plays Rachel a troubled, trash talking, trampy 17 year-old who has indulged aplenty
in drinking, drugging and diddling.  Huffman is the fed up mother who dumps the San Francisco raised Rachel at strict grandma
Fonda’s house in conservative Idaho for the summer – a last chance to shape up before college.  Rachel deals with granny’s
antiquated rules (hence the title that makes the teeth ache) and life in the stifling town by acting out Big Time.  Lohan’s physicality –
the currently in vogue painfully thin frame topped by mammoth jugs – is at odds with the “plain Jane” girls in the little town and
Rachel quickly draws the lustful attentions of every male in town, especially the resident teen hunk who also happens to be a virginal
Mormon.

Rachel does her best to set the townspeople emotionally on fire with her wicked ways to the mortification of conservative granny but
when she reveals the true reason for her immature ways – sexual abuse at the hands of her step father – the picture, which has
already changed tone almost as many times as Rachel has changed slutty outfits, settles into a drawn out version of “he said/she
said” whose outcome hinges on whether mom and grandma will believe her and do something about it.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Huffman and Fonda as mother and daughter is like a female version of the one between Fonda
and her father in
On Golden Pond.  Only now Huffman plays the younger, embittered daughter and Fonda the cranky, brutally honest
disapproving parent.  Both actresses give it their all but the script doesn’t really offer much insight into what made the relationship
between the two women come apart in the first place.  Though the sexual abuse theme isn’t exactly heartwarming (to say the least),
Marshall’s trio works hard to make the uneven script work and another huge asset in the movie is the always welcome Dermot
Mulroney as the man that Huffman left behind.  Marshall is also filmmaker enough to ensure that in the end audiences will get one
of those heart tugging redemption scenes and leave the theatre wiping away the tears.  

In
Georgia Rule Rachel gets a second chance while in real life Lohan finished the film, went into rehab and promptly returned to her
party lifestyle – all breathlessly reported by the tabloids.  Audiences get to have their heartstrings tugged as the troubled young lady
on the screen sees the error of her ways and gets to tisk tisk and take the moral high ground over the miscreant actress playing the
part.  This is a rare case of a chick flick providing satisfaction, in some measure, both on and off the screen.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Avant-garde Canadian writer-director Guy Maddin, famed for his German expressionist influenced pictures like
The Saddest Music in the
World
and Tales from the Gimli Hospital returns with Brand Upon the Brain!  Shot quickly on location in Seattle in the director’s
signature black and white jittery look Maddin this time goes even further with his favored style and opts for a silent movie complete
with title cards and lavish though ironic film score (by Jason Staczek).  

The movie is narrated by Isabella Rossellini in a drop dead manner that helps punctuate the tongue in cheek comedic tone of the
picture which, in true Maddin style, is stuffed with an assortment of freakish characters and goings on.  The plot centers on a young
man (named after Maddin himself) returning to his childhood home – a lighthouse on a barren, chilly island in which the abusive
mother and mostly absent, mad scientist father ran an orphanage in a rather Dickensian manner.  The father barely registers but
the mother is omnipresent -- a shrill harpy whose voice is clear as a bell, silent film or no.

Followers of Maddin’s offbeat films will revel in the jerky rhythms and twisted motivations of the characters but I must confess that
after marveling at the director’s unique vision for about 20 minutes, as usual, I found myself glancing at my watch.  Though I’m a
big fan of Maddin’s short films (especially
Sissy Boy Slap) I’ve never been a true convert to his full length features and frankly, find
them a bit tedious with
Brand Upon the Brain! no exception.  

I’m intrigued, however, at the plans for the opening weekend presentation of the film which will take place at Chicago's Music Box
Theatre May 18-20.  An 11-piece orchestra, augmented by a castrato and a sound effects team will play the score while actor Crispin
Glover will deliver the narration and these additions certainly have the makings of a unique evening at the movies.  Thereafter, the
version I screened, with Rosellini’s narration, prerecorded music and sound effects will be shown.  Ticket prices for the live version
with Glover will be higher.  Information at
www.musicboxtheatre.com
Ladies with an Attitude:
Georgia Rule-Brand Upon the Brain!
Expanded Edition of 5-9-07 Windy City Times Knight at the Movies Column
By Richard Knight, Jr.