Review of Rachel Getting Married (2008) by Casselise R — 21 Dec 2009

When you place a DVD into the player, and see what seems to be nothing more than a pathetic home movie beam into the living room, you may feel a natural instinct to turn it off.

Keep watching.

This is the kind of film that you may only be able to relate to, if you have felt the emotions of the heroin. Slow in some parts, it is worth the wiat to witness the performances.

Jonathan Demme, director of 'silence of the lambs' and 'Philadelphia', takes us on the journey of a young girls grappling fight with het guilt, and the influence she has over her family's togetherness.

Rachel getting married is a painful story that explores the familiar agony of being on the outer of a family. Some see it as middle child syndrome, or just the crappy place that they seemed to take because they were not 'smart enough', 'talented enough', or 'special enough'.

Anne Hathaway stars as Kym. A family member that has made more than her fair share of mistakes, and even one major enough to rip her, and her entire families lives, apart. Yet she carries it all.

I found myself synched into the corner of the couch, cowering internally for Kym, as she faces her own tortured demons, and her families wrath, on one of the most celebrated days of her blood sisters life.

This firm is the kind of directional, talented filmmaking that is inspiring; because it is in reach of everyone. It is a film that relies on no special effects and no massive budget to invade you and make you feel, even on the most minute level, vulnerable for the role you have played in the lives of the people you have loved.

I commend Miss Hathaway on her brilliant ability to show the true tortures of a person's soul; those tortures that come, inextricably linked to a families fracture lines. Fracture lines that, regardless of your sorrow, can never be undone.

This film touched me.

RECOMMENDATIONS.

WATCH IT IF YOU LIKED: Philadelphia (although filmed in a completely different format).

CHILDREN: Send them to bed. There may not be anything directly damaging here, but the concept is extremely adult, and some of the scenes vivid in their hostility.

RELIGION: Some Blasphemy.