'georgia' Won't Rule The Box Office Even With Fonda, Huffman

When I think about it, director Garry Marshall has spent the last 17 years trying to find his next "Pretty Woman."
Though he had some box office success with that "Princess Diaries" series, that's kid's stuff. And, "Runaway Bride" was successful fluff.

But, Marshall has had several failed attempts at taking a tough, dark, storyline and turning it into an emotional comedy.

That's what he did with great success with "Pretty Woman," which was, essentially, a story about a prostitute.

His failures at pulling that off again include "Exit to Eden," a comedy about weird sexual proclivities, "The Other Sister," a romantic comedy about a mentally challenged couple and "Raising Helen," a dramedy about a young single woman trying to raise the kids of her sister who died in a car accident.
Now, you can add to that list of disappointments "Georgia Rule" - a film that will be remembered more for its off-set gossip column fodder than it will for its story and performances.
Yes, this is the film where Lindsay Lohan was publicly reprimanded for partying too much and showing up late - or not at all - to the set.

And, guess what, Lindsay Lohan plays a bad girl in "Georgia Rule." The odd thing is, maybe her misbehavior worked in her favor here, because she's pretty good at playing the bad girl.
In fact, I'd say, that Lohan delivers the best performance of "Georgia Rule" - and that's saying a lot considering her co-stars are Jane Fonda and Felicity huffman.

Lohan is Rachel, the out-of-control teenage daughter of Lilly (Huffman), who finally decides to let her mom Georgia (Fonda) take a crack at straightening this wild child out.
This requires Rachel to go to Georgia's house in a little Idaho town populated by a lot of Mormons. Obviously, this is not her scene.

Then, there's Georgia, a sometimes profane authoritarian who won't allow others to cuss and has lots more rules that must be followed.
Hence the title, "Georgia Rule."
Fonda plays the grumpy grandma for all its worth but - you know - it's still Jane Fonda and somehow this character seems a bad fit at times.

Huffman's Lilly is a hard-drinking mess of a woman - again played for all she's worth by this actress who's got way more than she gets to show on Wisteria Lane in TV's "Desperate Housewives."
Anyway, Rachel runs roughshod over this quiet little town, alternately mean-spirited and sweet, as her grandmother tries to alternately pound and massage some sense into her pretty little, promiscuous head.
I guess it's kinda funny, if much of it didn't seem a tad unsettling.

Then, this nearly congenital liar, Rachel, drops a real bombshell which would tend to explain why she acts out the way she does.
But, it also sends this already strained drama-comedy into the absolutely not funny at all category.
And, we're back to where we started - Garry Marshall's on-going quest to make a breezy emotional comedy like that one way back about the street-walker and the millionaire, "Pretty Woman.

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He doesn't get there, again, in "Georgia Rule."
Craig Kopp can be seen on Fox19. Drop him a note at .