Rachel Getting Married (A- or 3.5/4 stars)
Kym (Anne Hathaway) has been in & out of rehabs for over 10 yrs. 'Rachel Getting Married' (directed by the incredible Jonathan Demme) is about her return home for the weekend of her sister's wedding. With her, Kym brings a lot of anger, personal crisis, & family conflict to the rehearsal dinner. This sets the stage for an enticing fly-on-the-wall peek into a family that is trying to hold their emotions together for this joyous occasion. Full of humor, pain, & resentment, this movie nails the trivial details that make up both the normalcies & oddities surrounding an impending wedding. 'RGM' is a strange, yet wonderful film.
A drug & alcohol addict since the age of 16, Kym has been clean for quite a while. That's all fine & well, but it hasn't changed her attention-grabbing personality. But while she's loud & self-centered, her bravado also conceals a great amount of pain & grief in her heart; for something that happened to a close family member some years ago. Her loving, but overprotective & naive father, Paul (Bill Irwin), hovers over her incessantly. She knows her presence will provide the gossip of the weekend. So, perhaps her arrival at the ball (so to speak) would not be the best possible thing for her sister, Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt).
After living her life in the shadows of Kym's disease & over-the-top personality, Rachel hopes for a drama-free weekend for herself & musically-gifted fiancee, Sidney (Tunde Adebimpe). Adding salt to the family wounds ... Kym has also had a sketchy past with her seemingly neglectful mother, Abby (Debra Winger). Family dynamics shift, arguments ensue, lots of laughter is had, & lots of painful tears. And though the wedding couple's multicultural party of friends & family have gathered for a fun bout of feasting, dancing, music & love, we watch as long-simmering tensions surface at various points of the proceedings.
Weddings provide the perfect voyeuristic avenue for movie-watchers. There are so many characters (well-known, unknown, distant family members, close friends, etc.). Lots of drinking is to be had. The potential for romance soars. The potential for self-reflective depression also creeps in (will I ever get married? Why is she talking him? etc.). The minutia of Rachel's wedding serves as a huge backdrop for the story revolving around Kym & her immediate family. There is no artifice; everything feels real. There are huge revelations in the plot. But there are also questions that go unanswered. Jonathan Demme does a fantastic job directing this film; whether it's for an extended scene of jovial rehearsal dinner toasts, a silently observed scene, or an explosive family argument.
Anne Hathaway is very impressive in a highly complicated role (she's angry, but fragile; indignant, yet regretful). Kym is volatile, so her instability obviously gives Hathaway the license to go BIG. But whether she's playing the big or small moments, her Kym feels very real. I particularly liked her attention-yearning scenes; I know plenty of people like this. And even if you don't like Kym, it's hard not to commend her for the final decision she makes in the film. Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin (hysterical in a dishwasher segment ... you'll see), & Debra Winger all lend performances worthy of Oscar nominations in supporting categories.
I may not have always loved what I was watching; but that's true of any wedding experience. And since you genuinely feel like you are AT this wedding, it shows how successful the movie is with its goal. Rachel is marrying a black man; who has a large family present at the wedding. The couple has myriads of friends. Some are Asian, Middle Eastern, white, Jewish, & Jamaican. Of those, some are singers, lawyers, & even drug addicts. It's an eclectic group, and Demme makes sure we're drawn into it all with them. Though it isn't perfect, 'Rachel Getting Married' is a well written, solid drama that mixes the bitter with the sweet; the happy with the sad; the vitality & desolation of any given moment; and the wonderful uncertainty of what happens after credits roll.
A drug & alcohol addict since the age of 16, Kym has been clean for quite a while. That's all fine & well, but it hasn't changed her attention-grabbing personality. But while she's loud & self-centered, her bravado also conceals a great amount of pain & grief in her heart; for something that happened to a close family member some years ago. Her loving, but overprotective & naive father, Paul (Bill Irwin), hovers over her incessantly. She knows her presence will provide the gossip of the weekend. So, perhaps her arrival at the ball (so to speak) would not be the best possible thing for her sister, Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt).
After living her life in the shadows of Kym's disease & over-the-top personality, Rachel hopes for a drama-free weekend for herself & musically-gifted fiancee, Sidney (Tunde Adebimpe). Adding salt to the family wounds ... Kym has also had a sketchy past with her seemingly neglectful mother, Abby (Debra Winger). Family dynamics shift, arguments ensue, lots of laughter is had, & lots of painful tears. And though the wedding couple's multicultural party of friends & family have gathered for a fun bout of feasting, dancing, music & love, we watch as long-simmering tensions surface at various points of the proceedings.
Weddings provide the perfect voyeuristic avenue for movie-watchers. There are so many characters (well-known, unknown, distant family members, close friends, etc.). Lots of drinking is to be had. The potential for romance soars. The potential for self-reflective depression also creeps in (will I ever get married? Why is she talking him? etc.). The minutia of Rachel's wedding serves as a huge backdrop for the story revolving around Kym & her immediate family. There is no artifice; everything feels real. There are huge revelations in the plot. But there are also questions that go unanswered. Jonathan Demme does a fantastic job directing this film; whether it's for an extended scene of jovial rehearsal dinner toasts, a silently observed scene, or an explosive family argument.
Anne Hathaway is very impressive in a highly complicated role (she's angry, but fragile; indignant, yet regretful). Kym is volatile, so her instability obviously gives Hathaway the license to go BIG. But whether she's playing the big or small moments, her Kym feels very real. I particularly liked her attention-yearning scenes; I know plenty of people like this. And even if you don't like Kym, it's hard not to commend her for the final decision she makes in the film. Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin (hysterical in a dishwasher segment ... you'll see), & Debra Winger all lend performances worthy of Oscar nominations in supporting categories.
I may not have always loved what I was watching; but that's true of any wedding experience. And since you genuinely feel like you are AT this wedding, it shows how successful the movie is with its goal. Rachel is marrying a black man; who has a large family present at the wedding. The couple has myriads of friends. Some are Asian, Middle Eastern, white, Jewish, & Jamaican. Of those, some are singers, lawyers, & even drug addicts. It's an eclectic group, and Demme makes sure we're drawn into it all with them. Though it isn't perfect, 'Rachel Getting Married' is a well written, solid drama that mixes the bitter with the sweet; the happy with the sad; the vitality & desolation of any given moment; and the wonderful uncertainty of what happens after credits roll.