Review of Surviving Georgia (2011) by Adam F — 11 Nov 2011

A thoroughly unfortunate romantic comedy which manages to succeed at neither genre. The film's essential problem is the script, which starts off well enough with an interesting premise about two close sisters and their mother, who is the apple of their eye, and most male eyes in their rural community also. Neither sister has any idea who their true father is, but are for the most part unfazed, and lead a seemingly carefree life regardless. Until one day their mother, under implicit financial strain suddenly vanishes from their lives, leaving them to fend for themselves.

The film then cuts to the present day, and we meet the two girls again, now fully-grown and in their early thirties, but neither appears to have made much of a fist of their life - one living in a rooming house with her rebellious son, the other working a factory job. They are both brought back to the country town of their youth on what quickly emerges to be a ruse, and are forced to face the events surrounding their mother's disappearance.

While the premise to this point has our interest, from herein the film rapidly descends into tedium. It's not helped by curiously wooden performances from both Miranda and Valance, the latter of whom seems to mumble most of her lines through the film's first half as if she's under sedation. You can't help but feel by the end of the film that this is a product of both actors being scripted very little to work with, with their characters developing along insufferably trite and facile dimensions, mouthing lines that wouldn't be out of place in a Home and Away script.

The plot's set-pieces are bland and un-momentous, and are invested with little emotional build-up or consequence. Barely half-way into the film we have stopped even remotely caring what happens to the characters, which is just as well, as the development of each is as predictable as it is unremarkable. And that attitude appears to have afflicted the actors themselves.

Miranda occasionally drags her character out of the mire to shine in a couple of scenes, such as that where she visits her supposedly dead mother for the first time, but Vallance is just woeful throughout. Her love interest set-up, which occupies the majority of the character's development is so poorly managed, that when the couple finally kiss, you can almost watch her squirm with embarrassment. Possibly one of the least romantic denouements in the history of Australian cinema. Caroline O'Connor as the titular Georgia epitomises the film in that she sets the character up very well in the early scenes, but offers barely a whimper within the constraints of the tawdry and incredulous dialogue she's fed for the remainder of the film.

The film's main redeeming feature is its cinematography. The country town and its scenic backdrop are consistently and beautifully shot and framed. It's just a pity all this is ruined every time an actor walks into the frame.