Rachel Getting Married

The premise for the movie is fairly simple, Rachel is getting married and her sister Kym (Anne Hathaway) is getting out rehab after nine months clean, to come to the wedding and reconnect with her family, from here the drama ensues.

Anne Hathaway does indeed give a performance worthy of the plaudits she has received, she is very raw and real as a 9 months clean drug addict fresh out of rehab for her Sisters wedding.

Her character Kym is the life blood of the movie and the film sags when she is not verbally involved. Demme does a good job expanding on the initial themes of the dysfunctional family and "Daddy loved you more" jealousy issues of Kym's older sister, he spins it out to connect all the central relationships of Kym's family and the why's of how they are.

I liked that it didn't really try to paint anyone as overly sympathetic or unlikable, these are simply people and very like people we all know or have known in one fashion or another, in fact at times they are so real it almost feels like a fly on the wall documentary.

The film however is overlong and includes some pointless scenes as well as having one excruciatingly long scene that consists of speeches at the rehearsal dinner, I found my interest wandering throughout this and the overblown musical sequence at the wedding.

Demme does a wonderful job of showing the isolation of Kym, despite being with people who love her she feels as if she is not in their world and somehow is looking in on them through a window, one tracking shot in particular of her walking around her family home as if she is a stranger is a beautifully sad scene.

I also applaud Demme for leaving the race issue out of the movie.

This is Hathaway's show though as she strips away any trace of Hollywood glamour without the need to go to the lengths of ugliness that Theron etc went to, if she wins the Academy award (I doubt she will) she will be truly deserving, she serves up no pity for Kym and in fact plays Kym as at times selfish as people who are struggling often need to be. She also shows the inner contempt that many who deal with guilt go through, in some wonderfully powerful and achingly painful scenes where she lays herself bare, and it feels once again like you are looking in on real people.

7.8/10

Comments

[Shayla]

I hated this movie, its so boring and it tries its very best to be interesting and different, but characters were forgettable and the wedding was the center of the movie and the actual wedding was not fantastic. At the end of the movie, I thought okay and the point was..... Oh and FYI, the most horrible part in this whole movie which may even nudge a bit on a cult-like feel was the pre-wedding and they were in a church of some sorts and the bride and groom's family starting chanting Rachel, Rachel, Rachel..it was really bizarre. Thumbs down.