Georgia Rule

An angry California teenager (Lindsay Lohan) is dumped by her alcoholic mother (Felicity Huffman) with Grandma (Jane Fonda) in rural Idaho, where the three generations battle it out between “hilarious” interludes with two local men (Dermot Mulroney, Garrett Hedlund). Mark Andrus’ script punches all the chick-flick buttons with fat, clumsy thumbs (10 of them), and Garry Marshall’s direction is equally maladroit. A good cast tries to stay afloat on the sea of small-town soapsuds, with some surprising success, considering that they hardly seem to be playing the same roles from one scene to the next. An exception to this is Lohan, who doesn’t appear to try at all. Her character is a destructive, insufferable snot-nosed brat; does she think we’ll be sympathetic just because she’s the one playing the part?