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RACHEL GETTING MARRIED Send This Review to a Friend
Jonathan Demme’s new film can be taken as a good reason for eloping. The complications of having a big family wedding in “Rachel Getting Married,” which I saw as one of the highlights of the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, turn out to be enormous, and fortunately for audiences, entertaining. Demme’s approach is somewhat like the loosely structured work by the late Robert Altman. It has been written cleverly by Jenny Lumet (daughter of director Sidney Lumet), but there is the feeling of improvisation as relationships simmer and events unfold and explode. At the core is an especially fine, dramatic performance by Anne Hathaway as Kym, the sister of Rachel, played with skill by Rosemary DeWitt.
Kym, whose life has been a mess of addiction, has left rehab to attend the Connecticut bash, and her self-centeredness is very much in evidence, as it has been throughout the relationship with her sister and everyone else. Her very neurotic presence makes the wedding about her, shifting focus from the prospective bride and groom. The marriage is an interracial one, with Rachel’s intended Sidney black and played nicely by Tunde Adebimpe. The film takes the interracial aspect matter-of-factly without it becoming an issue. Kym is the issue here, and Hathaway makes the most of her acting opportunity.
There is also a worthy performance by Debra Winger as Abby, mother of the sisters, and there are impressive added contributions by Bill Irwin, Anna Deavere Smith, Anisa George, and Matther Zickel in rounding out the assembled entourage.
The dialogue is sharp, and the gathering may remind many of their own family tensions and squabbles. The film does carry on too long, with several possibilities for earlier endings. However, “Rachel Getting Married” is an intriguing and accomplished film, with Hathaway a special standout and a candidate for awards consideration. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
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