Starring Anne Hathaway, RoseMarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin & Debra Winger. Written by Janet Lumet. Directed by Jonathan Demme. Rated "R" for language, brief sexual situations and adult themes. 119 minutes.
If you read this blog regularly and you're not my wife or the irrepressible Mr. Z, then you probably need mental health counseling. No--I kid, I kid! A couple of posts ago I wrote about how I went downtown to see RACHEL GETTING MARRIED and all I got was a taste of the autumn cold because the theater was having a special screening of something else and had neglected to tell anyone.
Today, I rectified that disappointment and finally saw the movie. RGM is simultaneously a throwback to the forward looking ensemble dramas of the mid-1970s and a sly reflection of our current self-absorbed, multicultural times. Anne Hathaway plays Kym Buchman, the troubled, recovering addict sister of Rachel (RoseMarie DeWitt), the eponymous bride-to-be. Sprung from rehab specifically for the wedding, Kym may be in recovery, but she's still the same narcissistic, self-destructive, totally impulsive train wreck she was before she went into rehab. Once she arrives on the scene, the sisters (there's a mousy middle child too, named Emma) are at each other's throats, hurling accusations back and forth and engaging in some pretty intense sibling rivalry leading up to the big wedding, to the quiet, nerdy Classical musician played by Thande Adubimpe (best known as one of the lead singers of TV on the Radio).
As usual, I won't bore you with the details of plot if you want to discover the movie for yourself. (At this point, your best bet is on home video as the big holiday blockbusters are pushing this "indie" film off of the big screen.) If you've seen movies centered around big family gatherings like weddings or funerals or, hell, if you've ever rented Robert Altman's A WEDDING (1978), you won't be surprised by the dynamics of the story or some of the issues that emerge in the family bickering. What makes the movie generally work are the crackerjack performances by Hathaway, DeWitt, Bill Irwin as the loving but overwhelmed Dad and Winger as the mother. They are all on top of their game and each is completely convincing in their own way.
The movies problems come from the style director Jonathan Demme uses to bring us into this world. Shot on handheld high-def video with the camera weaving in and out of the festivities and the Buchman home, the picture has a sense of immediacy and is very good at making the audience feel like they are actually at the rehearsal dinner and wedding. And what a wedding it is, a multicultural, white-meets-black, Christian-meets-Buddhist festival with singing, dancing, chanting and cheering that makes you feel good about living in the 21st century. However, the same You Are There style starts to grate after a while. Ever been to a wedding where you really didn't know anybody and had no way to leave when you wanted to? That's what happens near the end of RACHEL GETTING MARRIED. The energy of the production manages to put it over but we still spend too much time with the festivities and not enough time with the key characters and their issues. A little trimming in these scenes would have been welcome.
All in all though, I enjoyed this movie and I appreciated a lot of what it was trying to do. I think both Hathaway and DeWitt deserve Oscar consideration and the lead and supporting actress categories respectively and the music in the film--all of which is played on screen, rather than scored--is often very lovely and affecting. It might work better on home video where, if the viewer gets restless during the long wedding and rehearsal dinner sequences, he or she can hit the fast forward button.
My Grade: B+
Peace...
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