Georgia

Hello, Brazilians! Georgia is such a touching film. I saw it once in one of the BAND's dawns, and then it didn't leave my mind anymore. After a long time, I saw it again, VHS, then I could remind it... still touching. A beautiful view of a beautiful life. Sadie is quite full of life. This life, sometimes, flees from her, but she's always trying to take it back. And there's no doubt about her ability... "She swallow people" - Georgia said. Yes, she's strong... she is Sadie Flood. And I really love this movie. I wish I could leave the Contracampo's (a Brazilian movie magazine)commentary here, but only English posts are accepted... what a pity!

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").

'Georgia' is a strong, sometimes harrowing drama about the relationship between two singing siblings: the eponymous elder sister, an established country-folk star, and the less talented Sadie, who is actually the central character of this film. Jennifer Jason Leigh is in her element as the self-destructive, self-loathing Sadie, and delivers perhaps her finest performance; but Mare Willingham is also good in the subtler role of Georgia, a woman whose capacity to feel compassion has been tested to the limit, and which only survives when focused through a prism of superiority. Georgia is instinctively careful with words but Sadie compulsively goads her into betraying these instincts; the telling dialogues between them are constructed with a deadly precision, the high points of a generally excellent screenplay. What's also surprising is that the music is also good. In any film about art, a central problem for the director is creating a belief in the merits of the fictional work; in 'La Bellie Noiseuse', for example, Jean-Jacques Rivette created an explicit plot justification for not having to show the painting that is the film's centrepiece to his viewers, rather than letting us judge it. By contrast, in this film, Georgia sounds genuinely good, while Sadie veers between downright awful and almost interesting; this allows the film to actually use the music as a means of conveying the narrative of the story. This slows the pace of the film, and if you don't like the types of music played, might be excruciating; but it's interesting to see the (fictional) truth conveyed through the medium of performance.

One of the film's strengths is that it grants us no indulgent fantasies; because of this, the narrative arc is limited (especially as the film is quite long). In some senses, the film resembles other great films about the self-destructive, like 'Five Easy Pieces' or 'Naked'. It's not quite in that class, but it's double-headed structure makes it more reflective, less visceral, but by no means uninteresting. Overall, it's an unjustly neglected work.

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 read with effervescent amusement and disbelief the comments below. Jennifer Jason Leigh the best actress of the color film era? Goodness, where on EARTH are such judgments formed? From "Fast Times at Ridgmont High" ??? She is that rare actress who is unable to communicate either via verbal or nonverbal means - whatever drugs some of you folks might be on, send me some!

This is an unholy MESS of a movie - it has the worst of everything - a horribly written script, a plot with no point, a non-credible storyline and some of the most poorly drawn, stereotypical characters I've seen in a movie. Add to that hamfisted acting, labored directing and you have one royally screwed up-movie!

I think a few of the people below who have thrown laurels this movie's way would love to buy a suit of the emperor's new clothes - rare is the movie that comes along which is as pointless, vapid and obnoxious as this one.