Rachel Getting Married

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: October 3rd, 2008 (limited)

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, Anna Deavere Smith, Debra Winger 

Directed by: Jonathan Demme

Premise: When Kym returns to the Buchman family home for the wedding of her sister Rachel, she brings a long history of personal crisis and family conflict along with her.

[El Duderino]

Okay....I'll be the first to say it:

lame.

[modage]

I haven't seen the trailer for this, but the movie was REALLY GOOD.  The script, the direction, the acting all work together perfectly to hit just the right notes. The performances from the cast and especially Rosemarie DeWitt and Anne Hathaway were fantastic. You spend the first half of the film trying to put together who's who as it unfolds naturally. The film is unpredictable and steers away from cliche while revealing more about the characters. This was a really nice surprise.

[Reinhold]

it caught my eye that the onion gave this an A but I haven't had a chance to check it out yet

[w/o horse]

It's worth it for Demme's directing and Hathaway's acting.

[nix]

Kidman and Urban wandered into the same screening of this film as me. They decide to share a row with my my wife and I, planting their carefully groomed asses only a few seats away. I imagine we smelled of lower-middle class film geeks so they understandably moved down a row, sharing an ice cream bar (adorable, huh?).

About twenty minutes into the movie they bailed.  Kidman leaned over to her husband just before their departure and, according to my wife, whispered, "This is gonna be really depressing". I definitely heard her whisper something but couldn't confirm exactly what.

We have several theories for this behavior. I'll list them from least to most likely:

A) Kidman, being a vapid starlet, simply became bored and restless; preoccupied by all of the much more  fashionable things she could be doing at that moment.

B) She  was taking her husband's feelings into consideration since he apparently had a stint in rehab (this comes from my wife via tabloids and I'm too lazy to research it myself).

C) She was depressed by the fact that this film was on it's way to being what Margot at the Wedding should have been.

All comparisons aside, this is a great fucking movie. One of the year's best so far.

Even though handheld has become cliche at this point, it works beautifully when it lends itself to the material. Unsettling but never intrusive, the cinematography actually succeeds at making you feel like another member of the wedding party: Tense, unable to look away or leave the room, even though (like Kidman) you occasionally feel the urge. Hathaway disappears into the role, finding that addict's narcissism without taking it over the top. Everything about this film felt urgent and completely honest.

[Stefen]

haha.

[imawombat]

i really liked this film, although my boyfriend and i both agreed that there were a few parts (especially some of the wedding/dancing sequences) that could have been pared down.

[SiliasRuby]

This was an unexpected hit and worth every penny. I was completely blown away by Debra winger and Anne hathaway...Some scenes were just excruciating to watch and it pained me to endure some moments...but man, good stuff.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

there were a few parts (especially some of the wedding/dancing sequences) that could have been pared down.

I don't necessarily agree here.  I feel like they were long enough to help the audience smoothly transition out of the dark, angry family moments.  To really provide the feel that they as a family could put on a happy face for everyone else, forget all their bullshit and enjoy themselves until they're all just down to the immediate family again and prone to fight.

There were some wonderfully dynamic relationships caught in this film rarely seen in other films, and for that I am happy.

[Gamblour.]

Um I guess I'll say that I didn't like this.

I mean, I guess if you married the guy from TV on the Radio, you'd have quite the affair, but otherwise this movie dares you to trump its diversity, and I don't buy it. Seriously, how many cultures are represented here....in fucking Connecticut? How many amazing musicians flocked to this harmonious melting pot carnival? I guess I don't buy it because Rachel is pretty fucking boring. How'd she snag this dude anyway?

Kym is someone that I would probably talk to for about five seconds and then never talk to again. So seeing her baggage for two hours, didn't enjoy it.

I think the film's smart, it's constructed well, and there's a LOT of truth in the writing -- the father/Kym relationship and his neglecting Rachel, Kym's destructive behavior. But then, there's a lot to not enjoy here. The end of the dishwasher scene (which was a little too mundane to become what it was) was so apparent from the beginning. There was too much fun being had. The final hug, there was too much love there. Too much short term memory.

And I guess I really didn't like it because Kym's psychology is so transparent. It's all so easily mapped out. For being dramatic as fuck, this wasn't terribly complex, and I think that's a weakness. The aforementioned father/Kym relationship is sort of where the complexity begins and ends, and it's barely tapped into. The movie's only complexity is its strange multiculturalism. I realllllly didn't get it. The saris....who embodies the Indian culture represented here? I just don't know. If the idea is that new experiences can provide healing, Kym doesn't really seem to be in opposition to any of the culture in the film, so what's the point?

I'm surprised there isn't an iota of discussion on here aside from some vague praise.

[cinemanarchist]

Um I guess I'll say that I didn't like this.

I mean, I guess if you married the guy from TV on the Radio, you'd have quite the affair, but otherwise this movie dares you to trump its diversity, and I don't buy it. Seriously, how many cultures are represented here....in fucking Connecticut? How many amazing musicians flocked to this harmonious melting pot carnival? I guess I don't buy it because Rachel is pretty fucking boring. How'd she snag this dude anyway?

Kym is someone that I would probably talk to for about five seconds and then never talk to again. So seeing her baggage for two hours, didn't enjoy it.

I think the film's smart, it's constructed well, and there's a LOT of truth in the writing -- the father/Kym relationship and his neglecting Rachel, Kym's destructive behavior. But then, there's a lot to not enjoy here. The end of the dishwasher scene (which was a little too mundane to become what it was) was so apparent from the beginning. There was too much fun being had. The final hug, there was too much love there. Too much short term memory.

And I guess I really didn't like it because Kym's psychology is so transparent. It's all so easily mapped out. For being dramatic as fuck, this wasn't terribly complex, and I think that's a weakness. The aforementioned father/Kym relationship is sort of where the complexity begins and ends, and it's barely tapped into. The movie's only complexity is its strange multiculturalism. I realllllly didn't get it. The saris....who embodies the Indian culture represented here? I just don't know. If the idea is that new experiences can provide healing, Kym doesn't really seem to be in opposition to any of the culture in the film, so what's the point?

I'm surprised there isn't an iota of discussion on here aside from some vague praise.

I might just be transposing my own feelings onto this movie but I felt like maybe there was a hint of condescension on Demme or Lumet's part about the level in which upper class whites can try and indentify with other cultures. If there was an acting award for smiling and laughing I'm pretty sure the singer from TVOTR has got it on lockdown.

[samsong]

comparisons to altman are too apt not to make, though it comes by way of cassavetes-- yes, for the hand-crafted aesthetic but also the emotional toughness--shot by anthony dod mantle in the 90s.  as for the multiculturalism, i'm not really sure how it "dares you to trump its diversity" but i felt that it's an act of sublimation on the part of the family, the donning of other cultures' celebratory traditions as a pretense of happiness.  i didn't think it was just kym's baggage for its running time so much as an astute observation of filial alienation and the act of figuring your shit out when you've fucked up, at once wrenching and funny, always resonant.  the most affirming movie going experience i had this year, which for now is reason enough to deem it the best.  tunde adebimpe sings neil young!  loved this movie.

[Gamblour.]

Here's what I meant by that. The film showcases an extreme diversity in the cultures represented, especially in the case of the saris, and for this I feel like the film was very unconvincing and being worldly for the sake of it. I found it very disingenuous, the reasons being that Rachel is just some boring white girl from Connecticut and I was given no reason to believe that she could have entered a world this diverse, and if she is capable of this, we don't know enough about her.

However, by feeling this way, I also have to consider the fact that this probably is someone's wedding out there somewhere, maybe Rachel's maybe not, but do my own presumptions about the world make me feel like this was a complete fucking fairy tale? And are they wrong? For that, the movie makes me feel alienated, as if this display is diversity is both true and unsurpassable. Hence, you couldn't trump it even if you tried.

[pete]

connecticut is a pretty diverse place.
also, you're letting the diversity bothering you that much?  boring white people can't have friends from other cultures?  there are some places that aren't as insulated as you might think - especially in savvy privileged families.  but that's real life.