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Rachel Getting Married
(2008)
In the spirit of Robert Redford's 1980 melodrama Ordinary People, director Jonathan Demme returns to greatness with this year's most intimate and powerful drama. Rachel Getting Married does what so many films attempt to do and successfully captures and shares with the audience the raw emotion of a family coming to terms with a tragedy that has influenced their lives for years. Full of eclectic music, brilliant verité camera work, and most of all, moving and engrossing performances, Rachel Getting Married is without a doubt one of 2008's top films.
What most grabbed me about Rachel is the unavoidable rift between reality and fakery displayed within the film. While the emotional core of the piece is wholly raw and affecting, much of the action itself reeks of a privileged upper-middle class family putting on airs of culture and a bohemian lifestyle in a feeble attempt to add meaning to their lives. The weekend leading up to Rachel's wedding and the ceremony itself are full of world music, lounging hippies, and co-opted cultures from around the globe, and while I welcome multiculturalism in film, I got a sense of loathing from its presence here. Maybe I've simply known too many Connecticut yuppies who have gone off the deep end with their white-man's-burden, but I couldn't help but see the falseness in their embracing of these varied elements. At the same time, the one member of the family who doesn't participate is Kym (Anne Hathaway), who has spent the last several years in various rehab facilities. Her estrangement from the family is undeniable and her mere presence brings to the surface all the pains of the past that they seem to have been hiding under all the traditional Indian dress and meringue dancing. Kym is, as a result, the most sympathetic character in the film, and though her family is fleshed-out and engaging to the viewer, it's Kym who draws you in and whose heartbreak hits you at your core.
She is brought to life near-perfectly by Anne Hathaway, who continues to break from her cinematic origins of family-oriented Disney films with ever more adult-themed dramas. Her portrayal of this troubled young woman, trying to reconnect with her family after years of separation and with the death of her younger brother on her drug-addled conscience is far and away the most moving performance this year and anyone who still thought of her as that girl from The Princess Diaries had better think again. While I can't really relate to much of Kym's self-destructive behavior and certainly not her tragic history of drugs and personal loss, it's hard not to relate completely with Kym as a character. The truth is that I know people who exhibit so many individual characteristics that Kym embodies, and I think its this familiarity and the subtle combination of all of these flaws which make her so real. Or perhaps it's the fact that Kym is just as much a victim as everyone else and her pain is universal.
While Hathaway is far and away the best asset Rachel Getting Married has to offer, the supporting cast is nothing to shake a stick at. They might not be the stars of the film, but their performances are equally noteworthy and it's their interactions with Kym that allow her character to shine to the degree she does. Rosemarie DeWitt proves to be a believable and sympathetic older sister as Rachel, and though she seems to hate Kym for both destroying their family and then taking all the attention, even in her absence, there are scenes between the two of them that exude such tenderness as can only be known between sisters. Meanwhile, their divorced parents (Bill Irwin and Debra Winger) are equally complex characters and present an even more detailed glimpse into a family tragically torn apart. Each deals with the death of their young son in a different manner, and anyone with a family (which is pretty much everyone, is it not?) will be hard pressed not to empathize with their situation.
Demme's skillful direction is every bit as evocative as the performances he draws from his actors and is vital to the pathos of the film. Utilizing handheld camera throughout the movie, one gets the sense very early that this isn't a narrative work of fiction but a cinema verité documentary. The technique evokes a presence and intimacy that is unparalleled in most family dramas and its restraint (this is no Lars von Trier film) keeps the movie from drifting into the territory of melodrama to which so many similarly-themed films fall victim. It's been nigh on two decades since Demme showed such directorial skill, but if one overlooks his last few Hollywood bungles (Truth About Charlie and Manchurian Candidate, I'm looking at you), it's almost as if he picked up right after completion of Philadelphia or Silence of the Lambs.
Rachel Getting Married is no walk in the park, that's for sure. The film had me on the verge of tears for nearly two hours and had my significant other in the bathroom of the theater crying for over twenty minutes upon completion. This is a movie with the potential to touch deep emotional roots in the viewer, and if you are one of those to whom it speaks so loudly prepare yourself for a cathartic ride. The reality of the film also brings with it moments of true levity, joy and exuberance, so it's not a complete downer, but they remain bittersweet and poignant. Like the moments in our lives which shape our outlook on the world, from the death of a child to the marriage of someone we love, Rachel Getting Married has effected me in a way I won't soon forget.
-Mark Moreland
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2004-2009 Thoughtsonfilm.com |
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Director:
Jonathan Demme
Writer: Jenny Lumet
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Mather Zickel, Bill Irwin, Debra Winger, Anna Deavere Smith, Anisa George, Tunde Adebimpe
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Runtime: 113
min
Rating: R
Release Date: October 3, 2008
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