Georgia Rule
Encyclopedia
Georgia Rule is a 2007 American comedy-drama film directed by Garry Marshall
and starring Jane Fonda
, Lindsay Lohan
, Felicity Huffman
, Dermot Mulroney
, Garrett Hedlund
, and Cary Elwes
. The original music score
was composed by John Debney
.
) is an uncontrollable teenager. With her latest car crash, Rachel has broken the final rule in her mother, Lilly's (Felicity Huffman
), San Francisco home. With nowhere else to take the impulsive and rambunctious girl, Lilly hauls her daughter to the one place to which she had sworn she would never return: her own mother's house in Idaho
. Matriarch Georgia Randall (Jane Fonda
) lives her life by a number of unbreakable rules - God
comes first and hard work comes a very close second - and wants anyone who shares her home to do the same. She will make anyone who takes the Lord's name in vain wash out their mouths with a bar of soap. Now saddled with raising the young woman, it will require each patient breath she takes to understand Rachel's fury.
Georgia arranges a job for Rachel as the office girl
of Dr. Simon Ward (Dermot Mulroney
), the local veterinarian
, who also unofficially treats people. His two nephews, Sam (Dylan McLaughlin
) and Ethan (Zachary Gordon
), are often at Georgia's house. Simon does not show interest in Rachel or other women, so she thinks he is gay
. However, Simon's sister, Paula (Laurie Metcalf
), reveals that he is still mourning the death of his wife and son who were killed in a car crash three years earlier. He refuses to have sex with Rachel even when she tries to seduce
him, but feels some passion for Lilly, whom he has dated in the past.
Rachel performs oral sex
on Harlan Wilson (Garrett Hedlund
), who, not yet being married, was still a virgin because of his LDS (Mormon) religion
. Backed up by a reluctant Rachel, he confesses to his LDS girlfriend, who is shocked. A team of LDS girls starts spying on Harlan to make sure he does not "have sex" again. After a short chase using Harlan's truck, Rachel explains to them that what happened was over, and that they can go back to having their summer fun. They agree to do so, only if Rachel goes home. Rachel then threatens them by saying if they have anything to do with her and Harlan again, as in: talk to Harlan, yell at Harlan, call her a name, throw stuff at her, or do anything else that has to do with her, then she will find all of their boyfriends and "fuck them stupid."
While trying to make a point to Simon about survival, Rachel bluntly says that her stepfather Arnold (Cary Elwes
) had sex with her from the time she was 12 until she turned 14. Seeing the effect of her revelation, Rachel tries to convince him she lied. However, Simon has already told Georgia about the sexual relationship, and Georgia in turn tells Lilly, who at first thinks Rachel is lying. Lilly comes to believe her daughter, however, and begins to drink heavily
and asks Arnold for a divorce
. When Arnold arrives, Georgia tells him to leave and will not allow him in the house. Finally, she attempts to force him off the property by hitting him with a baseball bat; when he still refuses to leave, she forces him, by using the bat to threaten his sports car in order to put a bar of soap in his mouth, after he takes God's name in vain. Rachel sees that Lilly cannot accept the truth, and lies to her, saying she didn't do anything sexual with Arnold.
At the motel where Arnold is staying, Rachel tells him that she has a video tape of him having sex with her when she was 14. Arnold seems worried, which further convinces the viewers of his guilt. Rachel demands US$
10 million (half his presumed net worth) if he does not keep Lilly happy. She admits to him that she lied to Lilly because she does not want her to be upset anymore. On the way back to San Francisco, Arnold tells Lilly that he is giving Rachel his new red Ferrari
. Hearing this Lilly quickly recalls Rachael's earlier claim that he bought her a Ford Mustang
to keep her silence and demands to be let out of the car. As Lilly jumps out of the car and starts walking back to town, Arnold angrily admits to having sex with Rachel; he claims to have been seduced, that Lilly's heavy drinking drove him to it, and finally saying that Rachel enjoyed it. After fending off an attack from an enraged Lilly, Arnold drives off, daring her to take him to court.
In the end, Georgia, along with Simon, Rachel, and Harlan, catch up with Lilly in Harlan's pick-up truck, and a tearful Rachel makes up for her behavior. Harlan also mentions to Georgia that he is in love with Rachel and plans to marry her when he returns from his two-year mission.
with a score of 17 percent with a Cream of the Crop rating of only 7%. The film also had a low rating on Metacritic
with a score of 25, which means Generally Negative Reviews. Georgia Rule was rated the #2 worst movie of 2007 by AOL
. The movie received "two thumbs down" from Ebert and Roeper, with the guest critic calling it "Lindsay Lohan's Gigli
" (many critics would compare Lohan's following star vehicle, I Know Who Killed Me
, to Gigli) and "a sitcom
about sexual abuse
."
Garry Marshall
Garry Kent Marshall is an American actor, director, writer and producer. His notable credits include creating Happy Days and The Odd Couple and directing Nothing In Common, Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Valentine's Day, and The Princess Diaries.-Early life:Marshall was born in the New York City...
and starring Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
, Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan is an American actress, pop singer and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11...
, Felicity Huffman
Felicity Huffman
Felicity Kendall Huffman is an American film, stage, and television actress. She is known for her role as executive producer Dana Whitaker on the ABC television show Sports Night , which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination, and as hectic supermom Lynette Scavo on the ABC show Desperate...
, Dermot Mulroney
Dermot Mulroney
-Early life:Mulroney was born in Alexandria, Virginia, the son of Ellen, a housewife and amateur actress originally from Manchester, Iowa, and Michael Mulroney, a law professor at Villanova University School of Law, originally from Elkader, Iowa. He has a sister, Moira, and three brothers, Conor,...
, Garrett Hedlund
Garrett Hedlund
Garrett John Hedlund is an American actor known for his roles in the films Friday Night Lights, Four Brothers, Eragon, Country Strong, for his role as Patroclus in the movie Troy and as Sam Flynn in the film Tron: Legacy.-Early life:Hedlund was born in Roseau, Minnesota, the son of Kristine Anne ...
, and Cary Elwes
Cary Elwes
Ivan Simon Cary Elwes , known professionally as Cary Elwes, is an English actor. The son of Dominick Elwes and Tessa Georgina Kennedy, Elwes acted in off-Broadway plays during college and moved to the United States in the early 1980s. He is known for his role as Westley in the cult classic The...
. The original music score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
was composed by John Debney
John Debney
John C. Debney is an American film composer. He received an Academy Award nomination for his score for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ...
.
Plot
Rachel Wilcox (Lindsay LohanLindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan is an American actress, pop singer and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11...
) is an uncontrollable teenager. With her latest car crash, Rachel has broken the final rule in her mother, Lilly's (Felicity Huffman
Felicity Huffman
Felicity Kendall Huffman is an American film, stage, and television actress. She is known for her role as executive producer Dana Whitaker on the ABC television show Sports Night , which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination, and as hectic supermom Lynette Scavo on the ABC show Desperate...
), San Francisco home. With nowhere else to take the impulsive and rambunctious girl, Lilly hauls her daughter to the one place to which she had sworn she would never return: her own mother's house in Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
. Matriarch Georgia Randall (Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
) lives her life by a number of unbreakable rules - God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
comes first and hard work comes a very close second - and wants anyone who shares her home to do the same. She will make anyone who takes the Lord's name in vain wash out their mouths with a bar of soap. Now saddled with raising the young woman, it will require each patient breath she takes to understand Rachel's fury.
Georgia arranges a job for Rachel as the office girl
Secretary
A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
of Dr. Simon Ward (Dermot Mulroney
Dermot Mulroney
-Early life:Mulroney was born in Alexandria, Virginia, the son of Ellen, a housewife and amateur actress originally from Manchester, Iowa, and Michael Mulroney, a law professor at Villanova University School of Law, originally from Elkader, Iowa. He has a sister, Moira, and three brothers, Conor,...
), the local veterinarian
Veterinarian
A veterinary physician, colloquially called a vet, shortened from veterinarian or veterinary surgeon , is a professional who treats disease, disorder and injury in animals....
, who also unofficially treats people. His two nephews, Sam (Dylan McLaughlin
Dylan McLaughlin
Dylan McLaughlin is an American actor. He has appeared in television series including ER and Bones as well the motion pictures Alice Upside Down, Georgia Rule, and Kicking & Screaming. He has also appeared as Benji in iCarly.-Personal life:McLaughlin was born in La Mesa, California...
) and Ethan (Zachary Gordon
Zachary Gordon
Zachary Adam Gordon is an American film and television actor, best known for playing Greg Heffley in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid films which are based on Jeff Kinney's #1 New York Times best seller Diary of a Wimpy Kid....
), are often at Georgia's house. Simon does not show interest in Rachel or other women, so she thinks he is gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
. However, Simon's sister, Paula (Laurie Metcalf
Laurie Metcalf
Lauren Elizabeth "Laurie" Metcalf is an American actress. She is widely known for her performance as Jackie Harris on the ABC sitcom Roseanne, Mary Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, the voice of Mrs. Davis in the Toy Story film series and as Debbie Salt in Scream 2...
), reveals that he is still mourning the death of his wife and son who were killed in a car crash three years earlier. He refuses to have sex with Rachel even when she tries to seduce
Seduction
In social science, seduction is the process of deliberately enticing a person to engage. The word seduction stems from Latin and means literally "to lead astray". As a result, the term may have a positive or negative connotation...
him, but feels some passion for Lilly, whom he has dated in the past.
Rachel performs oral sex
Oral sex
Oral sex is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a sex partner by the use of the mouth, tongue, teeth or throat. Cunnilingus refers to oral sex performed on females while fellatio refer to oral sex performed on males. Anilingus refers to oral stimulation of a person's anus...
on Harlan Wilson (Garrett Hedlund
Garrett Hedlund
Garrett John Hedlund is an American actor known for his roles in the films Friday Night Lights, Four Brothers, Eragon, Country Strong, for his role as Patroclus in the movie Troy and as Sam Flynn in the film Tron: Legacy.-Early life:Hedlund was born in Roseau, Minnesota, the son of Kristine Anne ...
), who, not yet being married, was still a virgin because of his LDS (Mormon) religion
Sexuality and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Sexuality has a prominent role within the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Adherents believe that gender is defined in the pre-existence, and that part of the purpose of life is for men and woman to be sealed together, forming bonds that allow them to progress...
. Backed up by a reluctant Rachel, he confesses to his LDS girlfriend, who is shocked. A team of LDS girls starts spying on Harlan to make sure he does not "have sex" again. After a short chase using Harlan's truck, Rachel explains to them that what happened was over, and that they can go back to having their summer fun. They agree to do so, only if Rachel goes home. Rachel then threatens them by saying if they have anything to do with her and Harlan again, as in: talk to Harlan, yell at Harlan, call her a name, throw stuff at her, or do anything else that has to do with her, then she will find all of their boyfriends and "fuck them stupid."
While trying to make a point to Simon about survival, Rachel bluntly says that her stepfather Arnold (Cary Elwes
Cary Elwes
Ivan Simon Cary Elwes , known professionally as Cary Elwes, is an English actor. The son of Dominick Elwes and Tessa Georgina Kennedy, Elwes acted in off-Broadway plays during college and moved to the United States in the early 1980s. He is known for his role as Westley in the cult classic The...
) had sex with her from the time she was 12 until she turned 14. Seeing the effect of her revelation, Rachel tries to convince him she lied. However, Simon has already told Georgia about the sexual relationship, and Georgia in turn tells Lilly, who at first thinks Rachel is lying. Lilly comes to believe her daughter, however, and begins to drink heavily
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
and asks Arnold for a divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
. When Arnold arrives, Georgia tells him to leave and will not allow him in the house. Finally, she attempts to force him off the property by hitting him with a baseball bat; when he still refuses to leave, she forces him, by using the bat to threaten his sports car in order to put a bar of soap in his mouth, after he takes God's name in vain. Rachel sees that Lilly cannot accept the truth, and lies to her, saying she didn't do anything sexual with Arnold.
At the motel where Arnold is staying, Rachel tells him that she has a video tape of him having sex with her when she was 14. Arnold seems worried, which further convinces the viewers of his guilt. Rachel demands US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
10 million (half his presumed net worth) if he does not keep Lilly happy. She admits to him that she lied to Lilly because she does not want her to be upset anymore. On the way back to San Francisco, Arnold tells Lilly that he is giving Rachel his new red Ferrari
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...
. Hearing this Lilly quickly recalls Rachael's earlier claim that he bought her a Ford Mustang
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. It was initially based on the second generation North American Ford Falcon, a compact car. Introduced early on April 17, 1964, as a "1964½" model, the 1965 Mustang was the automaker's most successful launch since the Model A...
to keep her silence and demands to be let out of the car. As Lilly jumps out of the car and starts walking back to town, Arnold angrily admits to having sex with Rachel; he claims to have been seduced, that Lilly's heavy drinking drove him to it, and finally saying that Rachel enjoyed it. After fending off an attack from an enraged Lilly, Arnold drives off, daring her to take him to court.
In the end, Georgia, along with Simon, Rachel, and Harlan, catch up with Lilly in Harlan's pick-up truck, and a tearful Rachel makes up for her behavior. Harlan also mentions to Georgia that he is in love with Rachel and plans to marry her when he returns from his two-year mission.
Cast
- Jane FondaJane FondaJane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
as Georgia Randall - Lindsay LohanLindsay LohanLindsay Lohan is an American actress, pop singer and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11...
as Rachel Wilcox - Felicity HuffmanFelicity HuffmanFelicity Kendall Huffman is an American film, stage, and television actress. She is known for her role as executive producer Dana Whitaker on the ABC television show Sports Night , which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination, and as hectic supermom Lynette Scavo on the ABC show Desperate...
as Lilly Randall Wilcox - Dermot MulroneyDermot Mulroney-Early life:Mulroney was born in Alexandria, Virginia, the son of Ellen, a housewife and amateur actress originally from Manchester, Iowa, and Michael Mulroney, a law professor at Villanova University School of Law, originally from Elkader, Iowa. He has a sister, Moira, and three brothers, Conor,...
as Simon Ward - Laurie MetcalfLaurie MetcalfLauren Elizabeth "Laurie" Metcalf is an American actress. She is widely known for her performance as Jackie Harris on the ABC sitcom Roseanne, Mary Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, the voice of Mrs. Davis in the Toy Story film series and as Debbie Salt in Scream 2...
as Paula Richards - Garrett HedlundGarrett HedlundGarrett John Hedlund is an American actor known for his roles in the films Friday Night Lights, Four Brothers, Eragon, Country Strong, for his role as Patroclus in the movie Troy and as Sam Flynn in the film Tron: Legacy.-Early life:Hedlund was born in Roseau, Minnesota, the son of Kristine Anne ...
as Harlan Wilson - Cary ElwesCary ElwesIvan Simon Cary Elwes , known professionally as Cary Elwes, is an English actor. The son of Dominick Elwes and Tessa Georgina Kennedy, Elwes acted in off-Broadway plays during college and moved to the United States in the early 1980s. He is known for his role as Westley in the cult classic The...
as Arnold - Héctor ElizondoHector ElizondoHéctor Elizondo is an American actor. Elizondo's first major role was that of "God" in the play Steambath, for which he won an Obie Award...
as Izzy - Dylan McLaughlinDylan McLaughlinDylan McLaughlin is an American actor. He has appeared in television series including ER and Bones as well the motion pictures Alice Upside Down, Georgia Rule, and Kicking & Screaming. He has also appeared as Benji in iCarly.-Personal life:McLaughlin was born in La Mesa, California...
as Sam - Zachary GordonZachary GordonZachary Adam Gordon is an American film and television actor, best known for playing Greg Heffley in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid films which are based on Jeff Kinney's #1 New York Times best seller Diary of a Wimpy Kid....
as Ethan - Tereza Stanislav as Violin Teacher
- Fred ApplegateFred Applegate (actor)Frederick Applegate is an American actor, singer and dancer. He is best known for originating the roles of Inspector Kemp and The Blind Hermit in The New MEL BROOKS Musical Young Frankenstein. Other Broadway credits include M. Dindon/M...
as Townie #1 - Cynthia Ferrer as Townie #2
- Destiney MooreDestiney Sue MooreDestiney Moore is a reality television personality and clothing designer who is known for her appearances on Rock of Love 2, I Love Money and Rock of Love: Charm School...
as Waitress - Christine LakinChristine LakinChristine Helen Lakin is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Alicia "Al" Lambert on the 1990s ABC/CBS situation comedy Step by Step and as Joan of Arc in Showtime's Reefer Madness...
as Grace - Shea CurryShea CurryShea Curry is an American actress, perhaps best known for her role as the Lady's Maid Brigitte in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement ....
as Melodee
Box office
The movie opened at 2,523 theaters. The film has taken in US$24,991,167 worldwide. It grossed US$17.40 million on DVD rentals in the United States, making a total of US$41 million.Critical reception
Reviews were mostly negative. The film earned a Rotten rating on the website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
with a score of 17 percent with a Cream of the Crop rating of only 7%. The film also had a low rating on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
with a score of 25, which means Generally Negative Reviews. Georgia Rule was rated the #2 worst movie of 2007 by AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
. The movie received "two thumbs down" from Ebert and Roeper, with the guest critic calling it "Lindsay Lohan's Gigli
Gigli
Gigli is a 2003 romantic comedy film written and directed by Martin Brest and starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and Lainie Kazan....
" (many critics would compare Lohan's following star vehicle, I Know Who Killed Me
I Know Who Killed Me
I Know Who Killed Me is a 2007 American horror-thriller film directed by Chris Sivertson and starring Lindsay Lohan.-Plot:The quiet suburb of New Salem is being terrorized by a serial killer who abducts and tortures young women, holding them captive for weeks before murdering them...
, to Gigli) and "a sitcom
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
about sexual abuse
Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...
."