Movie 187: Rachel Getting Married

Rachel Getting Married (2008) by Jonathan Demme
starring Anne Hathaway



In a nutshell:
The cinema verite (faux documentary) style will turn some people off, as will the slow pace and lack of action, but the realistically dysfunctional family made up of interesting characters makes Rachel Getting Married a worthy watch

Quick synopsis: Kym is a drama queen and former junkie who returns home for her sisters wedding.

Content: I'm all about keeping it short right now. I am about 6 movies behind, if I don't keep each review to a few paragraphs, I'll never catch up. Rachel Getting Married is a slow movie where not a whole lot happens. There is a lot of character interaction, but not much action to move the story forward. Instead, the story is moved by the characters' changing attitudes toward each other. Realistically, these changes aren't necessarily caused by specific actions, but rather by the characters reacquainting themselves with each other and letting old emotions boil to the surface. In this sense, it reminded me of a few Robert Altman movie I've seen, A Prairie Home Companion and Gosford Park.

Of course this type of screenplay absolutely needs worthy actors to bring it to life. This is even more important because director Jonathan Demme of Silence of the Lambs fame uses a documentary style approach to filming, which makes the whole thing feel a little more quaint and indie, as opposed to movies that have spawned from similar scripts like In Her Shoes, which made me feel like I was being hit over the head with the points they were trying to make. The style of Rachel Getting Married is much more subtle, which makes the material seem more subtle as well, even if it is an illusion.

It's been close to a month since I watched Rachel Getting Married, but what stands out in my memory the most are the extended scene of people just being. For example, the rehearsal dinner. The scene culminates with Kym making a big speech and making everyone uncomfortable, but long before that, we watch what old friends and new acquaintances enjoy each others company in a way that feels very natural and unscripted. I felt like I was just another guest at the table watching it unfold. This is a good thing in a movie with a slow story like this, as long as I don't get bored - which I didn't.

Although Anne probably deserved her Oscar nomination and Rosemarie DeWitt is a worthy adversary as the titular Rachel, my favorite appearance was the groom, played by Tunde Adebimpe, the lead singer of the fantastic band TV on the Radio. Is he good at acting? Not particularly. He seems uncomfortable in the spotlight of Demme's camera, which actually works for his character (an uncomfortable groom) But I don't think it was acting, so I'll give the credit to Demme and the casting team. They even made his character a musician and during the scenes where music plays an important role, it all feels very very natural. As a result, the musical scenes have stuck with me since watching.

The best compliment I can pay this movie is that it did not feel scripted or contrived at all. Sure, the tragic event in Kym's past is more than a little cliche, but the characters are pretty original, which means that I'm recommending Rachel Getting Married but not unconditionally.

Rolling rankings:
1. (500) Days of Summer (#185)
2. Up in the Air (#182)
3. Sherlock Holmes (#178)
4. Big Fan (#180)
5. The September Issue (#183)
6. Rachel Getting Married (#187)
7. Kids (#179)
8. Sex and the City 2 (#186)
9. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (#184)
10. Extract (#181)