Georgia

Georgia, as played by Winningham, seems one of life's success stories, a sizeable draw as a sweet-toned country chanteuse, capable wife and mother, kind and supportive sibling. Which is why the movie is about her screw-up sister Sadie (Leigh), a drink-addled, no talent vocalist in a bar-room rock band, whose recurring drugs problems almost seem designed to attract her family's increasingly fatigued compassion. An in-depth character study which resists pat solutions, Grosbard's best film to date allows its conflicts and self-exposure to surface mainly in live performance, Winningham's smooth professionalism delivered with emotional reserve, while Leigh unleashes all her pain at the mic despite her inability to hold a note - her startlingly raw, barely controlled traversal of Van Morrison's 'Take Me Back' is a remarkable instance of this actress's ability to inhabit a role. Written by Leigh's mother Barbara Turner, the film also lists her sister Carrie Anne Morrow as 'technical advisor'.