Georgy Girl

1966 "Georgy Girl is BIG!"
6.9| 1h39m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 17 October 1966 Released
Producted By: Columbia Pictures
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

A homely but vivacious young woman dodges the amorous attentions of her father's middle-aged employer while attempting to please her glamorously stuck-up roommate Meredith.

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Reviews

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation
StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
David Dickinson Georgy wanted to fall in love, get married, and have a baby. She met a young man and woman who were having sex regularly and who seemed, so Georgy thought, to be living a glamorous life, so Georgy became the young woman's roommate. Eventually, she developed a crush on the young man. Unfortunately, he got Georgy's roommate pregnant and married her. The guy decided that he loved Georgy and not the young woman he'd gotten pregnant and married, but he was actually too self-absorbed to love anyone. Neither the young mother or the young father wanted the baby. Both thought of the baby as a trap. They split up right after the child's birth. However, Georgy did love the baby, so she ended up with it. Having discovered that the young man she loved was actually incapable of loving her back, she dumped him. In order to get the society's approval to keep the baby, Georgy married an old lecher who'd been chasing her.Georgy ended up in a loveless marriage. She did have a baby to care for, but she was, in the end, unhappy.James Mason's character, James Leamington, the rich employer of Georgy's parents, is shallowly drawn by the script, but Mason plays the tolerable lecher as well as is possible. You know what he's after, but he does do the right thing, so to speak, and marry Georgy when she told him to. Their performances make clear that neither Leamington nor Georgy are satisfied with the result.Alan Bates and Charlotte Rampling are also saddled with equally shallow characters, but they give similarly good performances. Bates' character, Jos Jones, is an energetic clown who supplies much of the comic relief. Jones is enjoyable despite his obviously self-absorbed nature. Rampling's character, Meredith, is equally self-absorbed and turns out to loathe her baby. She, much more than Jones, resents the baby because it cramps her style.Meredith also introduces the subjects of abortion and sexual liberation into the film -- a radical departure for the time. However, this was not a political or "movement" film, and no argument promoting or criticizing either sexual freedom or abortion was attempted. They were merely presented as choices that were available.None of the characters are exactly likable, but it's hard to dislike them, too, and their motivations are easy to understand. Except for the character Meredith, the script keeps the characters' traits tilted ever so slightly toward the positive, and makes watching them, for the most part, a little better than unpleasant.Finally, Lynn Redgrave's performance as Georgy is also excellent. The character is, basically, naive about the world and inept in affairs of the heart. She bounces from being judgmental to deeply caring, from hopeless to happy and back again. An anti-heroine, since Georgy falls short in reaching her goals and, in fact, defeats herself by her own choices, she is much less than happy with her accomplishment.At the end, I felt very dissatisfied. Georgy not only didn't find happiness, but she was trapped in unhappiness -- and didn't seem to understand why. In fact, although Meredith is easy to dislike at her exit, she's the only character who gets what she wants. None of the characters learned anything about themselves or grew in any meaningful way, and that's what really bugged me. In any story that explores society's mores and characters' woes as this one does, a contrast between what exists and what is possible is required. This script did not have that. The stock -- and definitely un-liberated -- expectations of the times dominated the characters, despite the foray into sexual relationships and abortion, and no alternative paths were offered to relieve them of their plights. They were trapped in their personal limitations, and there was no way out. End of story.If you're looking for inspiration or love or happiness, this movie doesn't have it. The most that you'll find is unrewarding diversion.
treeline1 22-year old Georgina (Lynn Redgrave) is perky and funny and undeniably frumpy. She wishes she were more like her pretty (but self-centered) roommate (Charlotte Rampling) who's always being invited to parties and has a handsome boyfriend (Alan Bates). The only man who seems to want Georgy is her father's boss (James Mason), a rich and married older man who has ogled her for years.This is a sweet comedy/romance that lacks a real Prince Charming but does have a strong woman with a huge capacity to love. Georgy ends up with someone to devote her life to, though whether it is a happy ending is left to the viewer. The spirited theme song by the Seekers was a big hit when the movie came out in 1966; it reflects the happy-go-lucky mod attitude that had taken over the world. Redgrave is endearing as Georgy, Rampling is suitably shrewish, Bates is a very cute cad, and Mason makes for an off-putting but convenient lecher.The movie is engaging, funny, and touching and a good reflection of mid-sixties London.
Syl I do have complaints about the film but Lynn Redgrave's portrayal of outcast, Georgina better known as Georgy to her friends and family is absolutely wonderful. Lynn was truly a wonderful actress in film, stage, and television. In this film, she actually steals the spotlight from everybody else. Charlotte Rampling is also wonderful as her sister, Meredith. Bill Owen is great in his role as Georgy's father. We see little of Rachel Kempson, the lady of the house. Sir Alan Bates and James Mason play the men who entice Georgy's affections. The film is a British cinema classic of it's time and era. The cast is first rate but the writing could have been better as well. I kind of feel like the ending was a bit vague regarding her future and happiness. This film was really Lynn's best performance. She shattered the myth about the shy girl by making her multi-dimensional and alive. She is missed today and will always be.
InigoDeMontoya I was in high school when the movie came out but I was forbidden to see "Georgy Girl" as being too risqué in 1966 but I remembered the theme song fondly So when I inherited a VHS copy from my dad's movie collection, I thought I'd make up for a lost opportunity 40+ years later and my wife and I watched it the other night. Bleah.A comedy? It lacks that quality of humor that the ancient Greeks called "being funny." The characters: Georgy (Lynn Redgrave), a homespun girl-next-door type, a bit frumpy, a bit overweight, a bit dim, and more than a bit self-pitying. She seems to occupy herself teaching some sort of creative movement/dance class for children age 8 and younger and one gathers the impression that that's about her intellectual limit.Her roommate, Meredith, is a self-centered little tart whose life centers around the next party, the next man.Her man of the moment, Jos, is a spineless, feckless, immature, serially inappropriate in multiple dimensions, toad with a constant appetite for sex (okay, he *is* male).Georgy's father works as a chauffeur for James, a wealthy businessman of the staggeringly old (as portrayed in the film) age of 49-almost-50 who wants Georgy to become his mistress.There are none of these characters that you willingly identify with, sympathize with, or otherwise root for.With the theme song as a touchstone and Georgy's frumpy looks, I suppose I was waiting for a "Pygmalion" story that never happened. Instead, we were treated to inane people making a squalid bunch of life.Even the closing credits were a disappointment because the theme song comes back with a verse that either I had never heard or else had never registered before, a verse where Georgy is told, "Hey, even if it's not so great, at least you're now married to a millionaire." Bleah. In short, this movie sucks dead fish with a straw (this is a cinematic critical term).