Jane Fonda's last great performance - and one of the last before she retired - was as an alcoholic in Sidney Lumet's The Morning After in 1986. In Georgia Rule, the second movie in her highly dubious comeback, she does an about-face on her persona and her talent, playing a teetotaler and, what's worse, a pious bore.
As Georgia, a righteous small-town matriarch, Fonda gets to embody clannish virtues already a feature of the next presidential campaign.
Georgia Rule (Universal Pictures) Starring Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan, Felicity Huffman. Directed by Garry Marshall. Rated R. Time 113 minutes.