Georgia

Jennifer Jason Leigh is an incredible actress, climbing into a character and making you feel what the character feels. She accomplishes that to an intense degree as Sadie Flood in "Georgia." The problem is that I didn't really want to feel what Sadie felt. She scared and disgusted me. Mare Winningham (who knew she had such a clear, sweet singing voice?!?) matches Leigh's believable portrayal, but had a more sympathetic character with which to work. The stand-out, though, is Max Perlich as Sadie's worshipful husband/doormat. My heart broke for him. While the acting was strong, I found this film exhausting and kept checking to see how much time was left - it felt more like an assignment than entertainment.

Usually I like films that are good character studies, but Georgia fell flat as a character study. At almost two and a half hours long, the film grew dull and too long very quickly. I have the highest regard for Jennifer Jason Leigh's work as an actress/writer/producer, but I can only hope that her real singing is much better in real life than in this movie! It's just that Leigh's Sadie is an unlikeable, unsympathetic character, and her and Georgia's sibling rivalry is not gone into nearly enough detail to MAKE Sadie a sympathetic character. Mare Winningham does a very good job, and the woman has some beautiful pipes! Who knew? An OK film, but with the talented Leigh at the helm, it should have been MUCH better.

This film presents a fairly accurate portrayal of the chaotic, symbiotic environment of the bar band music scene. If you are looking for a coherent, one-two-three plot and are expecting realism at the same time, forget it. You would be missing the point. Having "been there" and "done that", I can affirm that this movie does a pretty good job at portraying interesting and realistic snapshot views of people in this particular music genre. In addition, this film even goes so far as to attempt realistic discriminations between different types of musicians (e.g., between ones who want to just succeed, ones who just want to play, ones who can't get their lives together enough to make it, starving artists, etc.).

This film initially may seem innocuous and even simplistic to some casual viewers. I must admit that I didn't get much the first time I casually viewed it. "Georgia" is very layered and textural -- the more you stand back and look, the more you can almost reach out and touch it -- but, as with most true art -- one must stand back and really take a look at it to appreciate the many layers. The layers of this particular artwork is done via multiple, sometimes concurrent, relationships, which intermittently share the foreground and the background with some really great music and various elements of the music scene. There is the relationship between Georgia and Sadie -- of course, the most obvious relationship that maintains precedence, but if you spend too much time on this one, you will miss so much. There is the Sadie-Axel layer; the Sadie-Georgia's husband layer; the Sadie-Herman layer; the Sadie-and the music layer; the Sadie-Sadie layer; the Sadie-drugs layer; the Sadie-father layer; on and on. All these relationships involving Jennifer J.L's character puts a lot of pressure on J.J.L, and I think she brings it about beautifully. I don't find her "overacting" in any scene -- the only "overacting" that is done is done by Sadie, not by J.J.L.

J.J.L. has rarely disappointed me in her character portrayals. I have always found her an interesting sort of actress: she does not have that obvious physical "stand out" star quality about her, but more of a quiet, well-played character actress, genuine star quality about her. I think she, along with the other actors in this movie, did a terrific job with very difficult material (about a very unusual and difficult, but interesting, lifestyle), and this movie calls out to me to watch it every time it plays on my satellite service.

This movie should not be judged along with "standards". It is a rare piece of filmwork, and should be judged entirely on its own standalone merits.

I suppose 'Georgia' makes a more mellifluous title than 'Sadie,' because that's the Flood sister that gets the lion's share of attention in this movie. Sister Georgia has built herself a career as a successful country music singer and has a stable marriage and family life. Sadie sings too, sort of; she's not that good and performs with semi-pro bands in mostly empty nightclubs. The two women have a complex and fragile relationship. Sadie seems to love her sister and admire her talent, but just below the surface lurk envy and resentment. Georgia for her part is always polite but somewhat on edge when Sadie is around, as if she's afraid her sister might lose control of herself and do something stupid or embarrassing. That fear is not unfounded, for Sadie is, as one critic described her, an emotional black hole, the kind of person who sucks in all the concern and attention in a family. She's also a substance abuser who is always walking on the edge of personal destruction.

The movie was written by Barbara Turner, mother of Jennifer Jason Leigh who plays Sadie, and directed by Ulu Grosbard. They tend to underplay rather than overplay Sadie's drug use and erratic behavior. She often threatens to do something out-of-control or embarrassing but most often stops just a bit short. Only once in the film is she shown really suffering the ill effects of being a junkie, but it's a harrowing scene. Also, Sadie and Georgia are often right on the verge of an emotional bust-up scene, but they only really have it out one time as well. This keeps the film from degenerating into caricature but it may stop it from being a great film rather than just a good one.

Director Grosbard took one very large chance on a scene where Sadie is Georgia's guest onstage at a benefit show. Sadie sings a Van Morrison song, "Take Me Back," stretching it out with her own improvised lyrics before an uncomfortably silent audience, forcing Georgia to come to both Sadie's and the crowd's rescue. To make this scene work, Grosbard had to let the song run on a long time, some eight minutes. This runs the risk of alienating some viewers and providing an easy target for critics, but you have to admire the daring it took to include it.

'Georgia' is a good, solid, if not spectacular film about sibling rivalry and family relations. Leigh is good in her role, as is Mare Winningham as the more subdued title character. Of the supporting cast I especially liked Max Perlich as a hero-worshiping fan that Sadie uses by turning him into her husband.

Sadie is desperately looking up to her older sister Georgia who is a famous C&W artist. Sadie wants to be a famous artist like her sister, but is always doing everything wrong. Her desperate need to be accepted by her sister is constantly complicated by her drug and alcohol problems.

Beyond anything else you can say about this film, it is a showcase for Jennifer Jason Leigh. She not only stars -- and sings -- but produced the film, and along with her mother (Barbara Turner) wrote the script, based on a real-life experience.

The casting of Ted Levine is interesting. Apparently he was cast to help distance him from the "Buffalo Bill" image he had acquired. But they made little attempt to modify his look. He still looks very much like Buffao Bill, though he is quite capable of altering his appearance by merely growing a mustache (see "Monk").