RACHEL
GETTING MARRIED
By RONNIE SCHEIB
Variety, 9/3/08
Brimming
with energy, elan and the unpredictability of his "Something
Wild," Jonathan Demme's triumphant "Rachel Getting Married"
may just lay the wedding film to rest, being such a hard act to
follow. Amid preparations for a biracial wedding, in comes the bride's
time-bomb of a sister (Anne Hathaway), fresh from a nine-month stay
at her umpteenth rehab, ready to open every can of worms in the
cupboard. Riding emotional rollercoasters to the ever-changing rhythms
of the wonderfully eclectic in-house bands whose music never ceases,
Demme's self-styled stunner should appeal to arthouse auds upon
its Oct. 3 release by Sony Classics.
Kym (Hathaway, fragile, angry and superb) does not qualify as a
likely candidate for Miss Congeniality. Commanding centerstage,
she's not about to let a little thing like her sister's wedding
take away from the spectacle of her suffering. A succinct, wryly
perfect AA meeting makes clear that Kym's guilt over the death of
her little brother, Ethan, has left her incapable of coping with
herself, just as others have difficulty coping with her. The entire
family carries the scars of Ethan's death, along with all manner
of festering hurts and enduring longings.
Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) resents her sister's constant emotional
drain on their rich, white, liberal New England family, leaving
precious few resources for her own needs. In a marvelously funny
scene, when Rachel suddenly announces she is pregnant during a bout
of mutual sisterly recriminations, Kym inanely cries foul, unable
to overcome her anger at being upstaged.
A whole sea of troubles roils beneath the siblings' superficially
polite relationship with their divorced and remarried mother (an
incomparable Debra Winger), the tensions more inchoately acted out
than specifically spelled out. Meanwhile, their dad (Demme regular
Bill Irwin), expansive and all-embracing, cannot leave anything
alone, anxiously pushing food and solicitude upon his welcoming
guests and his far less receptive daughters.
Doubtless, the black groom and his family could yield similar soap
operatics, but the film never ventures far into the other side of
the aisle, except for innumerable toasts, hugs and songs as musician/groom
Sidney (Tunde Adebimpe) launches into a cappella Neil Young after
the vows.
The characters' volatile moodswings are matched by the restlessness
of the HD camerawork commandeered by Declan Quinn ("Monsoon
Wedding"). Quinn's camera, few of whose moves were blocked
out beforehand, proves ever ready to take off in unexpected directions.
With the passing of Robert Altman, Demme remains the only one of
his groundbreaking generation of '60s/'70s-spawned, open-ended moviemakers
consistently making films. Though written by Jenny Lumet (Sidney's
daughter) and owing more, plot-wise, to Noah Baumbach's "Margot
at the Wedding" than to Altman's "A Wedding," "Rachel
Getting Married" quite consciously inscribes itself with that
Altmanesque tradition of go-with-the-flow, quasi-ethnographic American
walkabouts.
The family of the bride here recalls the Kennedy-like dysfunctional
clan in "Five Easy Pieces," and like Bob Rafelson, Demme
never tells auds what to think about his characters. And if the
many disparate people in the frame do not deliver precisely syncopated,
overlapping dialogue, they are dazzlingly counterpointed musically,
as Mendelssohn-strumming electric guitarists, scantily costumed
dancers or Arabic flautists march to the beats of different drums
with overarching harmony.
Tech credits are top-notch.
A Sony Pictures Classics release of a Clinica
Estetico production, in association with Marc Platt Prods. Produced
by Jonathan Demme, Neda Armian, Marc Platt. Executive producers,
Ilona Herzberg. Carol Cuddy. Co-producer, H.H. Cooper. Directed
by Jonathan Demme. Screenplay, Jenny Lumet.
Kym - Anne Hathaway
Rachel - Rosemarie DeWitt
Paul - Bill Irwin
Abby - Debra Winger
Sidney - Tunde Adebimpe
Kiernan - Mather Zickel
Emma - Anisa George
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