Review of Rachel Getting Married (2008) by Adrian N — 12 Jul 2010

Picture this. You're a 26yo girl who's out of rehab so you can go to your sister's wedding. You already did something wrong which was killing your brother in a car accident who is a baby. You're socially ignored and never loved and also nobody likes you cos you're just plain sick and a suicidal emo.

That's the whole outline of Rachel's Getting Married and Anne Hathaway does just that.

Annie plays Kym and she's temporarily out of rehab so she can see her sister Rachel (Rosemarie Dewitt) getting married. Kym wants attention for what she had did not just on becoming a drug addict, but also to ease down conflicts with her family particularly with Rachel and with her mother who is divorced with her dad.

If there was anything I would want to change in this film, it's nothing. Rachel's Getting Married is absolutely flawless.

Director Jonathan Demme who also made The Silence Of The Lambs, makes the movie out of the Dogme movement. Dogme is an experimental filmmaking technique in where every aspect in the movie is like a home movie. The camera's hand held and no lighting is put in. Some of the disadvantages of Dogme are the rules and laws since that was a movement and many critics would hate it, especially Australian film critic David Stratton.

But every shot and camera angle makes the movie more realistic as this is about a wedding. Many weddings are recorded as a home movie and are precious memories. With the shots, it also makes it either a doco or a mockomentary, given how fictional all the movie has been, of a personal life of a recovering addict. What I can say, it's almost perfect. I never got sick or end up puking.

Written by Jenny Lumet, the dialogue is realistic and it is more of getting to know or getting into the two and a half days of a demented person's family. That makes the movie a class of its own.

The performances are great particularly from Rosemarie Dewitt who plays the title character and Bill Irwin who is supportive at all costs and times when it comes to his daughters as the father.

But the main focus should be on Anne Hathaway. She almost owns this movie that I describe her in these words: N-T. As in BRILLIANT, EXCELLENT, and most importantly DECANDENT. Hathaway is no doubt dynamite as Kym and nothing goes in her way of what she wants. Almost like she got the bends. Half of the time she would do something good, half of the time she would do something out of hand like lying. But most of the time she wanted to be loved and wanted and forgiveness. Almost her performance has strong and powerful emotion. Some of the scenes involving herself are heart breaking which made me burst into tears. Like when she tells of her painful story of how she was responsible for her baby brother's death in a car crash. One scene between Hathaway and her mother is so confronting. This kind of character makes Hathaway burst out from her good-girl image and I can relate to that cos her personality's heavy and reflective to what kind of personality I'm having. I can almost talk about her for the rest of the review. If Kate Winslet didn't win or was nominated the Best Actress Oscar last year, Hathaway would have deserved that Oscar because she's amazing.

With Rachel Getting Married, every core of the movie is dark and depressing. This is a truimph in filmmaking especially if you're in the arthouse business. But much of the movie ends in failure. I'm not saying that the movie ends up awful, I'm talking about almost every aspect. Rachel Getting Married doesn't end up like a soap opera which I think was the problem with the last movie I seen which was Closer. The ending doesn't leave out anything dry so you deserve something special.

Another interesting fact is that Rachel Getting Married is so filled with family angst, that it gave out many tragic circumstances and accidents distancing characters and the best thing about it is that people are so apologetic and guilty, it's more ofa psychological experience to be in.

Overall, the movie's a powerful and otherwise, a movie to appreciate more for.