A young uncontrollable spoiled brat from the big city is sent by her alcoholic mother to go stay with her strict grandmother in Idaho. During this “journey”, the grandmother tries to teach Rachel a little responsibility and respect. All the while, we learn that these three women hold many dark family secrets. Boring dialogue, so-so jokes and Lindsay Lohan’s jugs ensue.
MEH! This movie really sucked. It was super slow and the jokes were few and far between. I didn’t really care for any of the characters as most of them were badly written and unbelievable. I’m assuming Lindsay Lohan has a particular fan base that’s pretty young and unfortunately for them, the themes presented in this story are a little “excessive” for young viewers. Let’s see, they talk about an underage kid getting a woody, Lohan’s character is practically trying to seduce everyone she meets, there’s even a little oral sex going on and the real biggy is the subject of molestation. I was expecting a fun, light mother-daughter coming of age movie, but there was some pretty dark themes happening here and the way it was presented just didn’t do anything for me.
Lindsay Lohan plays Rachel, the sex-craved teen trying to get away from her mother. For a girl who gets a lot of flack from the media, she was pretty good and more importantly…she is extremely hot and quite easy to watch on-screen! I just love that scratchy voice of hers, makes me all warm inside.
Felicity Huffman plays Rachel’s messed-up mom. She plays a great drunk, really convincing too! This role wasn’t much of stretch from her character from DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, but she was okay. Jane Fonda plays the “by the book” grandma. Even with all of her plastic surgery, she still looks great for her age. I like her character’s sense of discipline and respected the fact that she didn’t take shit from nobody. It was a good role for Fonda.
The rest of the characters were pretty lame. I couldn’t stand Garrett Hedlund’s character Harlan, and Rachel’s love interest was truly pathetic and unbelievable. Even Dermot Mulroney’s character was extremely boring. And despite his circumstance, I just thought he could have brought a little more to the part.
This didn’t feel like a typical Gary Marshall film. I just found the overall themes too dark. And with this kind of subject matter and the comedy he was trying to mix in with it, it just didn’t click. It was like he was taking two totally different kinds of movies and putting them together to make one. This doesn’t even come close to being as good as any of his earlier flicks.
Don’t waste your time or your money folks, go see WAITRESS instead.
— by Tim
Goernert