? Not a story about Georgia, who’s a non-nonsense grandmother played by Jane Fonda, but a story about Idaho, where Georgia resides, about her estranged daughter (Felicity Huffman), and especially about her wayward granddaughter (Lindsay Lohan), who’s been dropped off from San Francisco for some tough love from Grandma. Besides being an occasion for culture clash (the bad girl falls for a Mormon) and self-examination on the part of everyone involved, there’s a dark family secret that may either cause further discord or bring the generations together.
+ Colorful characters, solid acting, an unusual (for Hollywood movies) setting, peppy direction from Gary Marshall, and a fairly good script by Mark Andrus (Life As a House) are the strengths. Perhaps it’s typecasting to have Lohan play a troubled teen, but I thought she made her semi-outlandish, sexually aggressive character fairly believable. A lot of whether you like this movie will depend on what you think of the mixture of tragedy and comedy, which, come to think of it, was also true of Life As a House. I didn’t find it unnatural here.
- The movie has the common tendency of making everything a little too tidy, like the way Lohan’s character nearly forces Dermot Mulroney’s to give her a ride, and he conveniently turns out to be the veterinarian Grandma’s lined her up a job with. The ending’s tidy that way too. Although I don’t share the view that the humor and drama didn’t mesh, it’s true that the script doesn’t dig too far below the surfaces of these nonetheless-genuine characters. I only half bought the romantic subplot, too.
= *** A family movie for dysfunctional families. Steer clear if “heartwarming” or “folksy” is what you're looking for.
[reviewed 5/17/07]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0791304/
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