Rachel Getting Married

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.

"Rachel Getting Married" is one of those films that leaves you (if you don't leave it first, as I did) with a burning desire to find the director of photography (Declan Quinn), give him a thorough shake, and shout in his face, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!!!" What possible artistic pretension could lead a photographer and director to destroy every ounce of potential by an overused, overworked, unoriginal, seen-it-a-zillion-times style of shooting? Weren't they confident enough to trust the writing and acting with producing the claustrophobia and panic of acute family dysfunction? While the viewer is desperately searching for her dramamine pills, the camera is reeling from side to side, jumping every which way, assaulting the actors with suffocating close-ups--and repeating this cinematic mannerism literally ad nauseam. Stay away.. unless you're a trained pilot and can take motion sickness well.

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.

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.

Well the movie itself wasn't anything special. I was wondering why every person in the cast had to give a speech, or sing a song, or whatever. The shaky cam as well was not necessary. It's not a documentary so don't treat it like one.

The film's obvious strong point, and really the only reason worth watching is Anne Hathaway's performance. Speaking as someone with a sister who is a (sometimes recovering) drug addict, I think she nailed it in the way her character was unstable yet narcissistic, starved for attention, and over the top emotional. I could really relate to her sister in that sense- how annoyed she gets the way people coddle her sister because she is immature and makes stupid decisions. It was just the little details that I think made Hathaway's performance so realistic- the tone she would use when she would make a joke about rehab, that trying to be sarcastic to get a laugh, but really just saying it to bring attention to the fact that she has issues. It showed that even if somebody is in recovery that doesn't necessarily mean they are recovered- that they have personality traits that are never going to change. I think she really captured the essence of that type of character.

There was also great performances, though, from the actors who play her mother, father, and sister. So bravo to pretty much the whole cast.

B-