Georgia Rule

The confused script trades in such heavy topics as alcoholism and child sexual abuse, but every dramatic scene plays like one of those schmaltzy Happy Days moments that inevitably drew a big 'Awwwwww!' from the studio audience.

Time for a new book by Jane Fonda, and this time I expect a full chapter on how she got snookered into doing Georgia Rule.

Director Garry Marshall has too much confidence that he can match the weighty issues here with the light comedy. He can't. Or at least he can't with this cast.

Georgia Rule doesn't make you feel good; it makes you queasy.

You'd think that decree No. 1 for a movie about rules would be to know exactly what kind of picture you're making and selling. Georgia Rule fails that basic test, and a whole lot of other ones besides.

Georgia Rule reminds as to why Lohan, unlike some of Hollywood's other troublemakers of the late noughties, has been missed.

The actors are sabotaged by Marshall and screenwriter Mark Andrus, who make the fatal decision of trying to water down its grim story with forced comedy.

Oh Lindsay Lohan, where has your talent gone?