"Georgia" A Film Review by Linda Lopez McAlister on "The Women's Show" WMNF-FM 88.5, Tampa, FL March 23, 1996 "Georgia" has been a long time coming to the Tampa area; it was originally released late in 1995. I suspect that if it weren't for the need to fill 20 screens at the Brandon 20-plex we might not have had the chance to see it at all. And that would have been a shame. For as painful and difficult as it is to watch this searingly realistic story of a(nother) hopelessly self-destructive personality, it is written, directed, and acted so well that those of you who love good filmmaking will definitely want to get over to Brandon to see this film. The film lets us see a time-slice of about a year in the lives of two sisters, Georgia (Mare Winningham) and Sadie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), with a brief flashback under the opening titles of their childhood and a strong sense that what happens in this year has happened before and will, we realize sadly at the end, continue to happen until Sadie finally kills herself from booze or drugs. Georgia is the older sister, a talented singer and a very big star in the folk music world (to me she seemed to be kind of a cross between Joan Baez and Chris Williamson in the performance scenes). As in their childhood when they used to put on shows for the neighborhood, kid sister Sadie, shorter on talent, followed in her footsteps and made up for what she lacked in musical ability by the intensity with which she threw herself into the song. Only now that they're adults Georgia has found a hard-fought place of serenity with her successful career, loving husband, nice kids. While Sadie is struggling to find (and keep) work as a back up singer, hampered in this by her alcoholism and tendency to take up with a series of really bad news men. The screenplay to this film, written by Barbara Turner who happens to be Jennifer Jason Leigh's mother in real life, is very insightful about the demons that haunt this family and the inconsistent love/hate reactions that such a situation may generate. Sadie is so screwed up that even those who love her can't deal with her and the demands that love puts on them over the long term. She loves and admires and basks in the glow of her sister's success but resents and is jealous and demanding of her. Georgia, too, clearly loves her sister but has obviously been hurt so many times by Sadie and her all-consuming pain that sucks everyone into her orbit, that she can't take it anymore. And yet, the next time Sadie hits bottom, it is she who's there for her because, by that time, there is no one else. While their mother is absent and presumably dead, the figure of their father looms in the background creating tension for both of them for reasons that are left unexplained but are clearly significant. Sadie sees him in her room in a detox center and tells him to go away, but we never know for sure whether he was actually there or only imagined by her. There is a period in which Sadie seems to get better, get clean and sober and that might give her a chance to turn her life around. But she goes right back to the world of third-rate rock combos she was in before, trading on being Georgia's little sister. The deft intercutting of Georgia and Sadie singing one of Georgia's signature songs, "Hard Times Come Again No More" at the end of the film tells just how their lives will continue to go. Georgia's version is clear, sweet, and strong. Sadie's is wildly out of tune. For the WMNF "Women's Show" this is Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and Film. Copyright 1996. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint or reproduce this review without the permission of the author: mcaliste@chuma.cas.usf.edu.