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Rachel Getting Married (Review)

Rachel Getting Married (Review)

An uninviting wedding invitation
By
Feb 16, 2009
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2.1/5
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Rachel Getting Married (Review), reviewed by Anders Wotzke on 2009-02-16T15:43:57+00:00 rating 2.5 out of5

Watching Rachel Getting Married is a lot like being forced to sit through an overly long wedding video in the living room of a couple you hardly even know. When Kym (Anne Hathaway) returns from rehab to be at her older sister Rachel’s (Rosemarie DeWitt) multicultural wedding, her unresolved issues make the journey home with her, exposing the dysfunctional side of her family at a time meant for celebration. Kym desperately seeks to redeem herself in the eyes of her relatives, unable to forgive herself for a tragic accident that happened 10 years earlier as a result of her drug addiction.

Uncharacteristic of director Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia), the film goes out of its way to capture the home video feel. Multiple handheld cameras work each scene, often going as far to expose each other in the frame, interchanging between notably long takes and rapid edits. The result is a film that certainly feels like an authentic wedding video than it does a straightforward Hollywood drama, but it doesn’t necessarily benefit from it for that reason. Like many home videos, Rachel Getting Married is full of long scenes that are of little interest to an outside viewer; a dinner party scene lasting 20 minutes grew incredibly tiresome to watch. Sure these scenes work to develop characters, clearly showing the great love that exists within the family beyond their heated arguments, but the monotony of these mostly inconsequential scenes caused my interest in their story to wean. The shaky camera style also can be quite nauseating, with the irregular frames and jarring edits enough to cause momentary confusion.  Whilst I do somewhat admire Jonathan Demme’s attempt at something different, Rachel Getting Married ultimately feels like a failed experiment.

2008 rachel getting married 0161 249x167 custom Rachel Getting Married (Review)

As Anne Hathaway’s Academy Award nomination goes to show, the film’s strength lies in its performances. A far cry from the actress who frequently stars in Disney family films such as The Princess Diaries, Hathaway’s sarcastic yet sincere performance as Abbey, gaining your sympathy despite her often unlikable character, will certainly see her credibility as a dramatic actor increase greatly. Mind you, I wouldn’t have gone as far as to say she deserved an Oscar nomination, especially when Rosemarie DeWitt is so easily overlooked by the Academy for her role in support as Rachel. DeWitt’s dynamic performance is easily the film’s highlight, as her struggle to deal with her sister’s issues whilst on the verge of her marriage is captured with great talent. Bill Irwin as the overly supportive father and Debra Winger as the divorced and distant mother are also well suited to their roles. Unfortunately, these great performances ultimately exist within a film that can’t make the most of them.

Verdict:

The distracting home-video style of film-making, along with a character driven story that struggles to engage amidst the many protracted scenes, makes the first 60 minutes of Rachel Getting Married feel more like a MTV Reality TV show than an engrossing drama. Whilst the film does draw you in towards the conclusion, it’s not enough to elevate Rachel Getting Married from merely being labelled as the film that launched Anne Hathaway’s career in dramatic acting.

[rating: 2.5/5]


Follow the author Anders Wotzke on Twitter.

  • http://www.bitchinfilmreviews.com blake

    I'm so glad I'm not the only one that wasn't bowled over by this film. I was so annoyed after watching it.

  • http://www.bitchinfilmreviews.com blake

    I'm so glad I'm not the only one that wasn't bowled over by this film. I was so annoyed after watching it.

  • http://www.themoviebanter.com Craig

    I don't plan on seeing this movie but was thinking about it just based off of her nomination and acting. I will wait for dvd for this one.

  • http://www.themoviebanter.com Craig

    I don't plan on seeing this movie but was thinking about it just based off of her nomination and acting. I will wait for dvd for this one.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Anders Anders Wotzke

    Unfortunately Craig, that's the only aspect of the film really worth seeing. Although, many critics have loved this film for a lot more, so you might find yourself falling in line with them I (and Blake obviously) found it tedious to watch and unrewarding.

    Thanks for your comments, Craig and Blake!

  • http://www.intensedebate.com/people/Anders Anders Wotzke

    Unfortunately Craig, that's the only aspect of the film really worth seeing. Although, many critics have loved this film for a lot more, so you might find yourself falling in line with them. I (and Blake obviously) found it tedious to watch and unrewarding.

    Thanks for your comments, Craig and Blake!

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Anders Anders Wotzke

    Unfortunately Craig, that's the only aspect of the film really worth seeing. Although, many critics have loved this film for a lot more, so you might find yourself falling in line with them I (and Blake obviously) found it tedious to watch and unrewarding.

    Thanks for your comments, Craig and Blake!

  • http://www.intensedebate.com/people/Anders Anders Wotzke

    Unfortunately Craig, that's the only aspect of the film really worth seeing. Although, many critics have loved this film for a lot more, so you might find yourself falling in line with them. I (and Blake obviously) found it tedious to watch and unrewarding.

    Thanks for your comments, Craig and Blake!

  • Andrew

    If anything, this review is too easy on the film (although it is certainly good to see a review that sees it for the pretentious, sentimental, tiresome lot of nonsense that it is).

    In attempting to adopt as naturalistic a style of acting as possible, presumably so as to fit in with the home-video style of the film, all actors instead descended into this neurotic, humourless, narcissistic self-consciousness.

    The hugging scene (pictured above) made me want to vomit all over the place as did the dishwashing scene. It is a bit unfair to single them out, though, because just about every other scene in the movie had the same effect on me. The wedding scene was the absolute pits. I defy anyone with any sense to sit through Kym's husband serenading her without feeling distinctly nauseous. What was clearly supposed to be "beautiful" was actually totally pathetic.

    If the film had been in any way critical of Rachel and her husband's self-satisfied, half-witted families – and Kym's character could have been a good vehicle for exposing their insularity – then the film would have been much better, but it appeared that instead we were supposed to think that these people were great or something.

    The reasons for Kym's descent into drug abuse were not dealt with in anything other than a very superficial way. All of the "I love everyone" multiculturalism was a bit sickening as well, because it was so unrealistic. Of course cultural tolerance should be encouraged, but the sugary harmony depicted in the film is not the way that real people behave, and showed nothing of the complexity of race relations.

    This is a very pretentious, unsubtle, shallow film, and I am amazed at the critical reception to it. The above review is a welcome corrective to the garbage that has been written about it elsewhere. I would have given it one star, though. This is real nonsense.

  • Andrew

    If anything, this review is too easy on the film (although it is certainly good to see a review that sees it for the pretentious, sentimental, tiresome lot of nonsense that it is).

    In attempting to adopt as naturalistic a style of acting as possible, presumably so as to fit in with the home-video style of the film, all actors instead descended into this neurotic, humourless, narcissistic self-consciousness.

    The hugging scene (pictured above) made me want to vomit all over the place as did the dishwashing scene. It is a bit unfair to single them out, though, because just about every other scene in the movie had the same effect on me. The wedding scene was the absolute pits. I defy anyone with any sense to sit through Kym's husband serenading her without feeling distinctly nauseous. What was clearly supposed to be "beautiful" was actually totally pathetic.

    If the film had been in any way critical of Rachel and her husband's self-satisfied, half-witted families – and Kym's character could have been a good vehicle for exposing their insularity – then the film would have been much better, but it appeared that instead we were supposed to think that these people were great or something.

    The reasons for Kym's descent into drug abuse were not dealt with in anything other than a very superficial way. All of the "I love everyone" multiculturalism was a bit sickening as well, because it was so unrealistic. Of course cultural tolerance should be encouraged, but the sugary harmony depicted in the film is not the way that real people behave, and showed nothing of the complexity of race relations.

    This is a very pretentious, unsubtle, shallow film, and I am amazed at the critical reception to it. The above review is a welcome corrective to the garbage that has been written about it elsewhere. I would have given it one star, though. This is real nonsense.

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