Retrospective: Rachel Getting Married (2008)

[David N. Butterworth]

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2011 David N. Butterworth

***1/2 (out of ****)

Anne Hathaway has never really done much for me. Probably the first time I
remember seeing her was in "The Princess Diaries" (although she'd been in
13 episodes of "Get Real" on TV before that, playing a character named
Meghan Green). I didn't exactly notice her in "'Diaries," since that film
was such a rags-to-riches dog, and the very doggishness of the entire
production tended to distract one from whatever Hathaway might have
contributed to the piece, good or bad.

She was in "The Devil Wears Prada," of course, but again so obviously
upstaged by Meryl Streep (channeling Glenn Close's Cruella De Vil) that, as
a result, she kind of slunk into the background also. I *did* notice her
breasts in "Brokeback Mountain" and remembered being woefully disappointed
by that. I mean, I understand that Ang Lee's a cool director an' all but
even so... As far as I remember that scene in the pick-up truck didn't
necessitate toplessness. A brassiere would've just as easily sufficed.

Now Ms. Hathaway is starring, front and center, in Jonathan Demme's new
feature "Rachel Getting Married" and she's hard *not* to notice. And I mean
that in a good way--a *very* good way.

Hathaway sports a dyed black crop as Kym, nine months free of abusing
substances and released from rehab in time for her sister Rachel's upcoming
nuptials. Unconditional love and acceptance here we come--not!
Chain-smoking her sorry way through life, Kym feels the disapproval and
embarrassment of her family at every turn, and attempts to make amends (the
12-step way) via a poorly received Maid of Honor speech. But, as she points
out, being Mother Theresa wouldn't exactly satisfy her clan.

As events unfold we learn the whys and the wherefores of Kym's
hospitalization, her parents divorce (her somewhat distant mother is played
by Debra Winger in a scarily real performance), her sister's
disappointment. "Scarily real," in fact, describes "Rachel Getting Married"
to a tee.

Director Demme shoots most everything with a dispassionate hand-held camera
that evokes the fine Danish drama "The Celebration," which centered around
a family reunion not unlike this one, captured the tense, dramatic events
via a natural filmmaking style, and featured an actor, Ulrich Thomsen, who
looks not unlike Bill Irwin here (Irwin plays the patriarch and his is a
fine performance too, as is Rosemarie DeWitt's as the eponymous Rachel).

This cinema verite approach of Demme's is so convincing it's often hard to
remember we're watching a fictionalized drama (the recent "Margot at the
Wedding" tackled similar dysfunctional family themes with less successful
results). The wedding dinner scene, during which many a toast is proffered,
is a striking example of how this talented director applies his chosen
technique.

Demme also has a knack for drawing out fine performances (see: "The Silence
of the Lambs") and Hathaway is the best she's been. Self-absorbed and
narcissistic, Kym is not intrinsically likable but Hathaway ditches her own
lightweight image by bringing out her character's emotional core. Credit
should also go to Jenny Lumet (daughter of veteran director Sydney Lumet),
whose finely realized screenplay neither skirts nor overplays the issues.

Rachel gets married, but it's Anne who gets the cred.

--
David N. Butterworth
butterwo...@gmail.com
www.offoffoff.com/film