La boda de Rachel

Maybe this is a generational thing but I wholeheartedly agree with those who have said, "Excellent film sabotaged by execrable camera work," "Teenagers Making Video," and "Rachel Gets Married, Audience Gets Headache." When I was an engineer and again as a programmer, we had a saying, "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you have to do it." Last week I saw W. and had the same comment about it. The hand held, shaky, up your actor's nose close-ups all distract from what could be an interesting story. How I miss the carefully plotted camera work of people like Gregg Toland (The Grapes of Wrath and Citizen Kane), James Wong Howe (too many to mention), and Freddie Young (Lawrence of Arabia). As Dennis Miller says, "of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong."

I also feel that many of the scenes, particularly the wedding party, went on way, way too long. If I had wanted to watch my friend's long, boring, amateur wedding video, I could have stayed home and saved the price of admission.

Family gatherings often make for awkward or even unpleasant moments in movies, and Jonathan Demme's "Rachel Getting Married" presents such a situation. Anne Hathaway plays Kym, who gets released from rehab for a few days to attend her sister's wedding in Connecticut. Once she arrives, the family's painful history begins to come out, and every member - Kym included - has to face how s/he has contributed to the problems.

Probably the most noticeable thing during the movie is the hand-held camera-work. Due to the film's caustic subject matter, this was an appropriate move, so as to create a naturalistic sensation, but at the same time it does occasionally distract from the movie's action. But aside from that, the characters made me feel as if I was walking on eggshells, simply due to the family's anger resulting from their gut-wrenching history. The fine performances without a doubt reinforce this.

Undoubtedly, "Rachel Getting Married" reaffirms Jonathan Demme as one of the great directors of our era. The top-notch performances, helping the audience understand what is wrong with this dysfunctional family, just might give you a new view of your own family. Definitely one that you can't afford to miss. Also starring Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin and Debra Winger.

In every actor's career there comes a moment where the critics and audiences rally around jumping for joy about how they've just witnessed a breakthrough performance. As stunning as these performances are, the term "breakthrough" always felt a little out of place to me since it's only on rare occasions the actor in question is relatively new. Most times they are people who have been pounding the boards and scraping the screen for years. In those terms, the breakthrough is nothing more than a large group of people seeing that actor in a new light for the first time, mostly in something they never imagined before. Now the newly colored spotlight falls on Anne Hathaway and her powerful turn as Kym in Rachel's Getting Married.

The film is a slice of life piece detailing a small space of time, only a few days, where Kym returns home from a rehab clinic just in time for her sister Rachel's wedding. Anyone who has ever taken part in arranging a wedding, especially one taking place in the family home, knows the extreme stress already present, so toss a young, partially unstable girl into the mix and top it off with a nice coating of family denial and dark skeletons in the hallway closet, then you get the full picture of this film. Relationships are strained, ties pulled so tight and taut they could snap and still they try to work it out through screaming, laughing and crying (not necessarily in that order). After all, it's about a wedding, who's not happy at those? Before giving Anne her due credit, let me shed some light on someone most people won't know off the top of their heads. Rosemarie DeWitt plays the title role of Rachel and she does it with the utmost tenderness and subtlety. What she brings across is the inherent hatred, resentment and unending compassion sisters can feel for each other, even through the worst of storms. With a film more comfortable in the category of "ensemble piece", Rosemarie is the catalyst and pushes the energy along, changing and charging every one of her scenes. But the light shines brightest on Anne Hathaway as Kym, the ex-junkie, ex-alcoholic, ex-return rehab patient bordering on becoming an ex-family member. Audiences claim this as a breakthrough performance because they fell in love with Anne in The Princess Diaries movies, Ella Enchanted and the wonderfully wicked The Devil Wears Prada. Yet what they might not remember is she's played rougher, tougher roles in Havoc and Brokeback Mountain, showing the more mature and adult side of her skills. So I wasn't all that shocked to witness the brilliance she brought to this film, but I will celebrate it all the same. Anne jumps in and exposes a vulnerability, a cavern of pain and lost love, which drives the emotional core of the picture. From opening credits to the closing moment, she is the elephant in the room everyone must deal with and the magical point is this is the first time where the audience can begin to empathize with the elephant and not the onlookers. I can't end the acting portion of this review without bringing up Bill Irwin and Debra Winger as well. Bill plays her father and churns out a tenderness only an accomplished actor such as himself could generate. There are such small moments, such tiny fractures in his facade which allow you to peer into the heart of a man trying to choose between his greatest love and his greatest loss. On the other side, Debra Winger plays her mother, who has chosen to block out the pain in her past and skate by the rest of her life, allowing the blackness and hurt to fester and suffocate any chance at a real connection with her daughters. As you can read, the acting on display here is sensational and will undoubtedly be remembered during awards season.

As a total film, I'm not sure the story reaches the same heights. A lot of great scenes and spectacular moments are created, but the story lacks cohesion. A particular subplot about the family and its deep love for music is mentioned and referred to over and over, but never fully explained or explored, which weighs down later scenes during the wedding celebration and the overlong musical sequences. During most of the musical moments, all I really wanted was to get back to the story, back to the family and to Kym. Also, the connection between Rosemarie and her soon-to-be husband Sydney (played by Tunde Adebimpe) never quite comes across. There is a wonderful moment during their wedding vows, but it could have been helped even more if their relationship had been more centered earlier on.

On the directing front, Jonathan Demme, with the assistance of a touchingly tender script from Jenny Lumet, helps craft a reality we can all believe in, a home we can all feel we've been to before. Much of this intimacy and nuance came from the free form style of camera movement, with the actors never knowing where and when the camera was going to appear on them. Everyone was basically playing everything from the moment he yelled action, so there were emotional surprises around every pan of the camera. That technique gave the movie a certain level of improv or even documentary feeling, like the audience was the most silent of voyeurs.

Recommendation: A powerful series of moments, filled with terrific acting, that don't quite come together as a film. Certainly has great value to witness, but the theater experience might not be necessary. Also, this really is meant for those viewers not afraid to open themselves up to it.

Greetings again from the darkness. After the first 5 minutes, I hated Anne Hathaway's character and I was sea-sick from director Jonathan Demme's hand-held camera work. And then two hours later I felt like I had just attended a family wedding! I got fully sucked in by Jenny Lumet's (daughter of Sidney, the master) riveting story of a family ripped apart and trying desperately to hold on to what is left.

While Hathaway's Kym is getting all the pub, I found Rosemarie DeWitt's Rachel every bit as mesmerizing, though a bit less laser-tongue equipped. Their scenes together are mind-warping ... truly like watching footage of a train wreck over and over. They love and hate each other, all while being loved and hated by everyone else in the family. So much self-destructiveness that it makes one wonder why apparent sweet guy Sidney (played oddly by Tunde Adedimpbe of TV on the Radio) wants to have anything to do with this ghastly group.

Just to make sure you are absolutely uncomfortable, Lumet tosses in the rarely seen Debra Winger as Kym and Rachel's estranged mother, who has emotionally backed out of their life completely so as not to feel the guilt she deserves for the death of the youngest sibling.

There is no way to watch this movie without numerous moments of being squeamish or uncomfortable. That is really the strength of the film ... it draws you into this world that you just don't want to be a part of.

Jonathan Demme back in great form. That's the good news. I've read somewhere he didn't want to work with actors anymore. He wanted to stick to documentaries where freedom (as a filmmaker) is king. I'm glad he changed his mind. He is a gift to actors and here they are subjected to a documentary style that for the first few minutes made me fear the worst but that at the end of the day it works brilliantly. Jenny Lumet's terrific scrip feels amazingly personal (wasn't her father, Sidney Lumet, once Lena Horne's son in law?)The characters are too vivid to be the figment of someone's imagination or is Demnme's documentary style that makes it appear that way?. I don't know and quite frankly I don't care. I went where the characters took me, Anne Hathaway and Rosemary DeWitt are terrific but it is Debra Winger's distant mother that will make me want to see this film again. I don't know how explain it. She's on the screen for a few minutes but her presence is extraordinary. Even when she's part of the crowd you can't take your eyes off her. Go see it/her