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Sister Act

Sob Sister: Mare Winningham suffers in 'Georgia.'

One thinks, the other doesn't, in 'Georgia'

By Richard von Busack

One represents the intellect, one represents the passions; sisters Georgia (Mare Winningham) and Sadie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) fight that battle to the traditional standstill in the dim drama Georgia. Sadie, a semi-homeless punkette with self-inflicted eyeliner-fluid tattoos, traipses up and down between San Francisco and Seattle, losing a husband and sponging off of her famous sister, Georgia, a well-known warbler of the Emmylou Harris school.

By what's offered in Georgia, a person who knew nothing of singing would interpret it as penance for the sins of the tribe. The two sisters approach this activity with reverence: Georgia wears a suffering-madonna mask that I think even Joan Baez would consider too much; Sadie, by contrast, is a human sacrifice, thrashing on the altar, wounding herself with drink and drugs. Leigh, unquestionably one of the best actresses working, outmatches the titular heroine with visceral scenes of bottoming out and detoxing. Still, Georgia is joyless in its excess. Compared to the compelling self-destruction in Leaving Las Vegas, it's like watching therapy.

The role of the actor is to distill human suffering; this is more like spilling your guts. Georgia's judgment of her minimally talented but highly emotional sister--that all she has is her pain--goes double for the movie.

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