Rachel Getting Married

Rachel Getting Married (08)
directed by Jonathan Demme
****

Rachel's is one of the most life-celebrating weddings of all time, despite the menacing presence of her little sister Kym (played with gusto by a surprisingly excellent Anne Hathaway). Though you don't see it coming, Kym's dismal presence is exactly what transforms the wedding from something shallow into something profoundly rich and powerfully beautiful. That, dear readers, is the point of Rachel Getting Married. There's something rotten in the state of life, and the darkness can seep through the cracks of even the most wonderful days. But the light is brighter on the other side of darkness. It's fascinating, and one of the freshest films of the year.

Penned by Sidney Lumet's daughter Jenny, Rachel Getting Married is one of those films that sadly slipped below most film-watchers' radar this year. If the Oscars were fair (& I realize what nonsense that is), Rachel Getting Married would be on the shortlist for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress, in addition to the one, well-deserved nomination it got for Best Actress. Okay, I felt you needed to hear all those positives after an introductory paragraph the equivalent of review cod liver oil.

Which reminds me: Rachel Getting Married is another in the long line of films that got mismarketed over the past couple of years. It, like In Bruges, is not a comedy. Not even a dark comedy. It's a drama, pure and simple. I don't think I laughed once in either film, and believe me, I'll laugh at a dark comedy (Terry Gilliam, where are you?).

Though the title and the one famous actress (Anne Hathaway) would make you think that Anne is Rachel, au contraire — Hathaway plays Rachel's little sister Kym. Kym, the recovering drug addict who hasn't seen her family in quite a while. Kym, who probably sets the record for crazy stories of shame and mayhem. Kym, the keeper of one of the family's darkest secrets, the one that will inevitably burst out at some point in the story. Kym, who seems to have battery acid running through her veins.

In the hands of a bungling idiot, this would have turned into something like the prequel to Bride Wars (God only knows how Anne could take such a bathetic leap from this film to that one) But under the watchful eye of long-absent director Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia), it becomes a thing of equal parts ugliness and beauty. In fact, it's the film's true-to-life ugliness that unlatches its redemptive third act.

Kym is the embodiment of all that's wrong with the world. It doesn't work out that well for her (just ask her AA group); but it's strangely convenient for her family who can effortlessly unload all their frustrations with life on her. That's not to say Kym is an angel with a dirty face: she's earned her fair share of sin-points. But who hasn't?

Rachel getting married, on the other hand: now this is a thing of beauty, an event that brings the straggling family together for a long week of celebration. Rachel & Sidney are music-lovers, and the film itself becomes one of the unlikeliest musicals ever to hit the real time. The camera-work is handheld, too; which might take 5 minutes to get used to, but afterwards feels like one of the best cinematic choices possible to get us close to these humans. The acting is so fabulously real, that I felt I should find Anne, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, Debra Winger and Jonathan Demme in person, so I could give them all a thank-you hug.

Rachel Getting Married is ultimately a story about redemption, and how sin and loss cry out for it. Though it's labeled a comedy by some half-mental studio execs, I found myself in tears at multiple points in the film. To be honest, they were the sort of tears that make you feel refreshed afterwards, in touch with joy again. Some of that cathartic sorrow flowed out of the story's realness, its humanity, its long and hard way that out of alienation leads up to light. But much of the power behind this wonderful little gem of a film is that insight we gain about ourselves when we spend a while looking into something we didn't realize was a mirror. As Gerard Manley Hopkins might put it, with Kym and Rachel and all of humanity, it is ourselves we mourn for. I hope you'll see this film.

Comments

[John Chiafos]

bravo on mismarketing. i totally loved 'in bruges,' and thought it deserved a buncha oscars.

[Neville]

I hadn't thought of this perspective of the film. I guess I thought the way it was shot was so self-conscious, so self-indulgent, it became distracting. I thought the first hour was much better than the second hour. But alas, I will see it again based on this little review. ;)

[RC of strangecultureblog]

very interesting...i haven't gotten around to seeing this.

you've made me more interested in this film then i have been.

[Desiree]

This movie made me think of the section in Blue Like Jazz where Miller talks about truly loving people rather than holding them out at arms length when their behavior frustrates or offends you, withholding your love or kindness to teach them what kind of behavior is acceptable.

Watching this movie was painful in a way because being part of this family's pain really saddened me. But it was a powerful reminder that only love and patience can really heal the past.