GEORGIA
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
GEORGIA tells the story of two sisters who love each other deeply. One, Georgia (Mare Winningham), is an unambitious but highly successful singer. The other, Sadie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), is an extremely ambitious but mediocre and unsuccessful singer whose specialty is singing her sisters songs - badly. Moreover, Georgia is very domestic. She loves to cook at the farmhouse where her happy family lives. Sadie is single, unhappy, and has a life threatening obsession with drinking.
When the movie opens Sadie has a bottle of whiskey that she is guzzling down while being a maid at a cheap motel. When she is invited to Georgia's Norman Rockwell farmhouse, Sadie starts off each morning drinking from mini-bottles in the kitchen. She stays so wiped out she can hardly stand up and her emotions are out of control. Nevertheless, the love the sisters have for each other shines through this adversity. Georgia ask Sadie, "What are you drinking?", and Sadie replies, "You know me. Whatever is cheap or free."
Sadie is an awful singer with a scratchy and irritating voice. She makes up some songs with lyrics including "Take me back" song ten times in a row like a Chinese water torture. During her first long song, people started piling out of my audience and heading to the lobby for refills. There is one long songfest that she has towards the end that made me want to jump up and scream "Cut!" to the editor (Elizabeth King).
Eventually, a clean cut kid named Axel (Max Perlich) who is delivering her groceries falls in love with Sadie. He and Georgia's husband Jake (Ted Levine) are excellent in minor but important roles. There is a scene in the kitchen where Jake is talking with Sadie about his marital problems over the years that is one of the best scenes of the movie. This part reminded me of part of one of my favorite movies, THE BIG CHILL.
Sadie has a fatalistic view of the world. She tells her audience at a concert that, "In the dark we're all scared. We're all scared and there are more of us all the time." In her tragic life she is being wasted away by drinking. She may also be a bulimic. Georgia tells her, "I want to know what you do locked away in that bathroom for half an hour." She keeps getting frailer and frailer throughout the movie. Toward the end, I was ready to cry she was so sad.
And yet, this movie is not a downer. At its heart and soul it is about intense sisterly love. Georgia is embarrassed by Sadie but bites her tongue, and offers Sadie, literally, the clothes off her back. Sadie in turn worships the ground that Georgia walks on.
Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance is riveting. She is an actress who really gets into her roles, and it shows. She is a thin woman who made a point of losing even more weight for the part. My only criticism of her acting is that when Sadie is sober her mannerism do not change. Mare Winningham has a hard role to shine in, but she is up to it. The chemistry between the two of them is genuine and believable. Even some of the very minor characters like that of Sadie's bandleader Bobby (John Doe) and of the heroin wiped out drummer Herman (John C. Reilly) are compelling.
The costumes (Carol Oditz) and the make-up play a vital part. Sadie's heavy black eye make-up gives her both a wasted and a trendy look. Her clothes, especially some of the rags she wears toward the end, help establish her character. The script (Barbara Turner) is written smart and insightful. I thought I had the ending figured out, but I didn't. Finally, much credit has to go to the highly controlled directing by Ulu Grosbard.
GEORGIA runs 1:53. It is correctly rated R for heavy alcohol and drug abuse, bad language, some nudity, and a little sex. It is a very serious show that would be appropriate only for mature teenagers. This movie is filled with riveting performances, and I recommend it to you. It gets *** from me.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: January 15, 1996
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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