Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mare Winningham, Ted Levine, Max Perlich, John Doe, John C. Reilly
Director: Ulu Grosbard
Producers: Ulu Grosbard, Barbara Turner, and Jennifer Jason Leigh
Screenplay: Barbara Turner based on a story by Barbara Turner and Jennifer Jason Leigh
Cinematography: Jan Kiesser
Music: Steven Soles
U.S. Distributor: Miramax Films
In 1994, Jennifer Jason Leigh was robbed by the Academy of a much-deserved Oscar nomination for Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. Undaunted, Leigh returned to the screen in 1995 with a pair of tremendous performances in films of vastly different tone and temperament: Dolores Claiborne and Georgia. It is for the latter movie, which the actress was instrumental in bringing to the screen, that she will likely receive the recognition she was denied last year. Georgia is a tour de force for Leigh, and her portrayal of the troubled, passionate Sadie lingers in the mind long after many of the movie's plot details have faded.
Georgia is a slice-of-life motion picture that lacks a definite beginning and end. It's a dual character study of two sisters and an examination of the complex dynamic which fuels their atypical relationship. While the movie could easily be called Sadie, because it's more about Leigh's character than her older sister, Georgia (Mare Winningham), the film makers have chosen their title carefully, because everything in this movie comes back to Georgia -- even Sadie, who often defines herself in terms of her relationship to her sister.
The sisters are classic opposites. Sadie is passionate, generous, giving, and emotionally open. She loves singing with her whole heart -- it's her reason for being alive -- yet she is painfully bereft of talent. Conversely, while Georgia is reserved and emotionally shackled, her glorious voice has made her a hugely successful Country/Western singer. So, as Georgia performs in packed arenas, Sadie must make do in front of a few drunks at a local night club.
Yet Sadie never resents Georgia's success. She attends her sister's concerts, applauding unreservedly after each song, and repeatedly identifies Georgia as the "only one who matters" to her. But Sadie's untempered, desperate passion and ambition terrify Georgia. She sees her sister as a monster who drains people's energy then swallows them up. In her view, Sadie has latched onto her and won't let her go, and someone as balanced as Georgia cannot cope with the all-consuming suffering and triumph that defines Sadie's existence. Like magnets of shifting polarity, these two are both drawn to and repelled by each other.
Leigh, whose career has included roles in such diverse films as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Rush, Single White Female, The Hudsucker Proxy, and Mrs. Parker, infuses Sadie with an inextinguishable inner fire. There are times when it's uncomfortable to watch this performance because it's so powerful -- Sadie is raw passion coupled with a total lack of talent. Never is this more apparent than when she sings from the heart. The emotion is there, but not the ability. The one thing Sadie wants more than anything else, she cannot have, and this realization incites her spiral into drugs and alcohol.
Mare Winningham is no mere second fiddle as the title character. The nature of her role -- a much more calm, rational personality -- demands that she often remain in the background, but she holds her own in scenes with Leigh. For the movie to work, it's important that Georgia be a vital and multi-dimensional personality, and Winningham brings these elements to her portrayal.
Georgia was a personal project for Leigh (her mother wrote the screenplay and she and Winningham are long-time friends off-screen), and it shows in her presentation of Sadie. Director Ulu Grosbard opts for a stark, simple style that underlines the tremendous swings of emotion that characterize the film. Georgia doesn't possess an amazingly original narrative, but what distinguishes this picture is the depth of the characters and the amazing power with which the two leads breathe life into them.
© 1995 James Berardinelli