Rachel Getting Married
- Year:2009
- Rating:M
- Director:Jonathan Demme
- Cast:Rosemarie DeWitt, Anne Hathaway, Mather Zickel
- Release Date:February 12, 2009
- Distributor:Sony
- Running time:102 minutes
- Film Worth:$12.00
- FILMINK rates movies out of $20 - the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
“…strong performances from all involved…”
Rachel Getting Married is an unflinching portrayal of a recovering addict's struggle to reconnect with her family. After nine months in rehab, Kym Buchman (Anne Hathaway) returns home immediately prior to her sister Rachel's (Rosemarie DeWitt) wedding. Within five minutes, she's causing chaos, callously bringing up Rachel's previous eating disorder and almost ruining the wedding dress with a lit cigarette. Kym is as self-involved as she is damaged, and has no understanding of how far she has already fallen from her family's favour.
The wedding dramas are just the backdrop for a multi-layered portrait of broken relations: a family dealing with a significant loss, a girl tortured by guilt and unable to move forward without stumbling, and a sister who seems to love her as equally as she despises her. While this is certainly Kym's story, the actions of her family members go a long way in explaining the anguish of her situation.
Director Jonathan Demme's handheld camera work and debut screenwriter Jenny Lumet's naturalistic dialogue create a documentary feel, and several scenes unfold with such honesty and emotional directness that the viewer almost ceases to be a fly on the wall and instead is there amongst the action, cringing right along with the characters in the room with Kym. There are strong performances from all involved, and the film proves to be a particularly smart choice for Hathaway, who aptly demonstrates a depth far beyond her usual rom-com roles. Kym would be an entirely unlikeable character, were it not for the shades of self-loathing and regret that Hathaway (who scored an Oscar nomination) subtly layers underneath her insolence. The film's only drawback is that, like Kym, it doesn't know when to stop. The intimate feel of a home movie is uniformly matched by an over-indulgent running time.
