Review of Rachel Getting Married (2008) by David P — 03 Sep 2010

I was looking forward to seeing this as it's from Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs) and some parts had my very entertained and other scenes were dull and boring.

The film wastes no time in introducing us to Kym; she has just gotten out of rehab and is coming home for her sister Rachel's wedding. She has been clean for 9 months and looking to turn her life around. The main focus on the story is the wedding and getting the wedding set-up. The drama is the trouble that Kym causes through the film and at how Rachel is mad that all her life it's been about, Kym Kym Kym and now that it's her wedding it should be about her her her. My main problem with the story is the scenes at the wedding and also that really long wedding rehearsal scene. That scene lasts for what felt like forever, the reason was the speeches that Rachel's husdand-to-be's family gave, now everyone from Rachel's family is introduced and we know quite a bit about them but, on Sidney's (husband-to-be) side none of his family is introduced, we know nothing about them so, why should we care? Then there is the wedding scene where we spend about 10 mins watching people dance and have a good time. If I wanted to watch people dance for 10 mins I'd go to a fucking night club, I don't want to see it in a film, I want to know more about the charcters, especialy Kym. I give Johathan Demme credit for getting the right atmosphere for a wedding but, 10 mins of dancing, no. The parts of the story that are intresting are the scenes where family drama is inducted upon us; Kym's drug problems always come into the picture and the fact that she was the cause of her brothers death; it's also intresting that she loses her temper easiler. I do wish that there were more scenes like that as, I didn't give a shit about the wedding. That's just me tho. I was disappointed with the story but, there are some bits of pure entertainment.

Thank god the acting is great. From her first staring role in The Princess Diaries, in which she is royalty, Anne Hathaway is now at the bottom of the food-chain as the drug addict Kym; she is fantastic and steals the film. I find it a shame that we don't see alot of her as she is the most intresting charcter. Rosemarie DeWitt plays Rachel, the girl who wants her wedding to be perfect and she also leads a brilliant surporting role. The heated arguments bettween her and Anne are very tense and entertaining to watch as well as those beautiful scenes as a conserned sister. The rest of the cast do fantastic jobs as well. I did find Rachel's friend anoying and I wanted to go into the film and punch her in her fucking head but, I guess thats the signs of a good actress. The acting saves this film from being rotten.

When I started to watch this the first thing I noticed in the opening scene was the camera; it is filmed as if someone is filming it on a handheld camera and it does make the film seem a bit more personal as if it's just a home-made film. The sets and locations are nothing special as, it's just there house and the wedding. It is a low-budget film after all so the production is really nothing special.

Rachel Getting Married could of been so much better; I will recomend it just for Anne Hathaway's performance and those few scenes of family drama but, I was just exspecting much more from the director of one of my fav films The Silence of the Lambs.

6.4/10.