Rachel Getting Married – Review
iView Author: Shikha Valsalan (Atlanta, USA)
Email: shiks_v[at]rediffmail[dot]com
‘ Rachel Getting Married ‘
When a movie has a limited release, the wait for it to finally come to a theatre at a drivable distance gets frustrating. And with a name that indicated a chick flick it was hard to get someone to go watch it with, even after it hit theatres. But finally a girlfriend,her not too eager husband and I watched the movie with two other people sitting a few seats in front of us. And the wedding began with just the five of us.
Anne Hathaway plays Kym, taking time off from rehab to attend her older sister’s wedding.A drug addict back from rehab may not be a welcome sight back at home ,particularly not at a wedding ,and the reassuring smiles and offers of support do not last long as soon, suppressed hurt and accusations come to the surface. A bride trying to divert attention to her important day from her not-good sister .A father constantly in grief and trying to protect his younger daughter . A stepmother who manages to stay sane pulls everyone through. A mother who helps to bring up a few more ghosts. A fiance who takes everything in his stride And we have a completely dysfunctional family which surprisingly seems genuine.
Anne Hathaway was the last princess on earth I would have expected to land in rehab. But as a spoilt, attention seeking brat, who at the same time cannot hide her vulnerability, Anne Hathway deserved the Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She effortlessly makes us think about making a list of people not to invite to weddings, and at the same time makes us feel like hugging and protecting her.The sister Rachel played by Rosemarie DeWitt deserves equal praise as an increasingly frustrated bride trying to have a normal happy wedding. Together the two sisters create a knotty tangle of emotions.
The strong performance of the cast made things easier for Jonathan Demme, who seems to have carried over something from his stint in documentaries after Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia.The first few scenes made me doubt if this was a real wedding and not a movie about a wedding.Hand held camera by Declan Quinn(who was also at the Monsoon Wedding) gives it the feeling of a home movie you could have made at your sister’s wedding.
But there was a trifle too much music and dance . It can be tiresome after a while to keep moving along with the camera, which while most of the time invites us to be a part of the family and the wedding, at other times forces us to listen to the never ending music,dance with strangers, and be embarassed at the long running family arguments (a few co-watchers in the theatre said that their heads were spinning even after the movie due to the emotional and visual shakiness of some scenes). But what else can you expect at a get together of musicians?And who really has normal weddings without any crazy relatives and a few arguments and out-of-place statements?
A really well made, touching as well as witty movie which should have been seen more of at the Oscars. Well,too touching for empty theatres where it can be hard to cover sniffs. And my usual trick of looking at others’ expressions to stop from wetting my cheeks could not be implemented.
Tags: anne hathway, jonathan demme, rachel getting married, Review
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
i was enjoying every second of the film
have carried over something from his stint in documentaries… absolutely right…
But I Feel his direction is the best part of the movie… though the celebration marred the pace, its so genuine that I got pulled back to marriages of my family…
Plus I loved the ‘world marriage’. A Caucasian getting married to an African American, wedding planned by a Chinese, Brazilian samba dancers and Indian theme and food.. but still so subtle. It a brilliant Sunday afternoon movie.
My favorite scene in the movie: The slap!!
thanx for bringing up this underrated flick..
Anne Hatheway dint just deserve nom but to win it. she was terrific. film was very open-ended, though,like life. Even the Father was brilliant.
The review is incomplete especially for us without mentioning the recurring Indian theme in the dresses and food :P .Thanks for letting us know the tiny detail about monsoon wedding link (it did come to my mind but didnt knew there was actually a link). Loved the acting of anne and the actors playing the elder sis and dad. I was really enjoyin the way it was shot .
The diversity was underplayed in the movie;to be noticed but not to be remembered.But yes,the saris were a surprise:)
I dont know whether i am over analyzing but, isn’t the marriage a inspiration from the hiedi klum and seal marriage. They too had an Indian theme to their marriage. And seal is a musician
yeah that and I noticed the “would you like soem saag paneer?” :P