This well-acted, sweeping herstorical epic focuses on the lives of three women, beginning in 1853. China Beach's Dana Delany is Sarah, the family matriarch, whose little sister Euphemia (a delightful and empathetic Tina Majorino) has been living with her best friend, Georgia (beautiful Rachael Leigh Cook), and Georgia's parents (Michael York, Julie Carmen) on a large, bucolic Georgia plantation. After the sisters' father dies, Sarah's husband, upstanding Texas Ranger Bartlett (Powers Boothe), takes "Pheemy" down to Peach Tree, Texas, to live with him and Sarah.
Pheemy and Georgia begin a correspondence chronicling their divergent lives. As Pheemy and her family work their farm and battle Santa Ana and hostile Indians, indulged Georgia is coming to terms with her family's greatest secret: she is one-quarter Native American. Majorino and Cook are excellent in their demanding roles and offer a challenge for their adult counterparts (Annabeth Gish as Pheemy, Angelina Jolie as Georgia). This film, originally a TV miniseries, is an earnest attempt to depict the difficult--and often tragic--role women were compelled to endure during this historically rich but phenomenally difficult time. True Women has plenty of action, but relationships, politics, and grim reality are the true focus, as issues of sexuality, prejudice, human rights, and of course slavery are eagerly examined in the frontier setting. The sensitive should be forewarned: it seems like there is a death every five minutes.