Rachel Getting Married

Rachel Getting Married 2008

• Director: Jonathan Demme
• Based on book: no.
• Cast: Anne Hathaway, Bill Irwin, Anna Deavere Smith, Rosemarie DeWitt, Anisa George, Mather Zickel, Tunde Adebimpe, Debra Winger
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Anne Hathaway – Interstellar, Song One, Les Misérables, The Dark Knight Rises, Alice in Wonderland, Becoming Jane, Brokeback Mountain, Ella Enchanted
• Bill Irwin – Across the Universe, Igby Goes Down, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Third Rock from the Sun
• Anna Deavere Smith – Nurse Jackie, The Human Stain, Philadelphia, Dave
• Rosemarie DeWitt – La La Land, Mad Men
• Debra Winger – Words of Endearment, Urban Cowboy
• Why? Remember liking it
• Seen: Once before. Now 8 December 2019      

       Kym (Hathaway) is released from rehab (for what we learn is repeated drug and alcohol abuse) to attend her sister Rachel’s (DeWitt) wedding. Her family welcomes her back enthusiastically and everyone pretends things are fine. Of course, they are not. Old conflicts flare up. Kym is touchy and volatile and carries old tragedies. Music, partying, family and friends, old memories, sweet speeches and laughter – it all makes Kym feel like an outsider, a pariah.

       Big bourgeois weddings really make me cringe. Family films are usually a chore. This one is very talky with a very long scene about how best and quickest to load a dishwasher. But even that is fraught with tragedy.

       I keep thinking that Christine Lahti should be playing Rachel, but DeWitt is good. Winger as the mother is good. Hathaway is very strong as always. The others are rather anonymous, their characters undeveloped.

       It is at times very dramatic, even gripping. The ending is very sugary though – must we see the entire wedding ceremony?  It’s far too long and there’s too much god and too much partying. I hate parties.

       Hathaway gets 5*. The film

      

3* of 5 but if it doesn’t end soon it will lose a star.