Review of Rachel Getting Married (2008) by Ike O — 01 Nov 2010

I have a serious soft spot for 'Rachel Getting Married'. It is so natural and honest and captivating, it feels like there was no script or rehearsals and we're just peeking into the lives of real people.

I was so captivated and enamored that I can't imagine those people *not* related to each other. Anne Hathaway produces a tour de force performance as the attention-seeking, self-centered, guilt-ridden and fragile Kym.

It is a tightrope act to embody this character - easy to mock and revile, hard not to sympathize and empathize, impossible not to love. She is 'Princess Diaries' no more. The script is by Jenny Lumet, daughter of directing great Sidney Lumet, and it is one unconcerned with formula and imbued with careful eccentricity and sweet honesty (a hilarious dishwasher-race sequence was allegedly inspired by a real life episode between Sidney Lumet and fellow directing luminary Bob Fosse).

Director Jonathan Demme breaks from his rut of remakes to craft easily his most mature and satisfying film. My only comfort in his being snubbed by Oscar in favor of Danny Boyle and friends is that Demme's '92 Oscar win (for 'Silence Of The Lambs') was criminally undeserved in light of Oliver Stone's earth-shattering work on 'JFK'.

But that, is another story.