Rachel Getting Married
Dir Jonathan Demme, with Anne Hathaway, Debra Winger
By Tom Huddleston
The defection of scrappy young indie turk Demme to the Hollywood
mainstream disappointed many: it's a long downhill march from the wise
and unpredictable Something Wild to the cautious tedium of Philadelphia. But after a half-decade honing his skills as a
documentarian, the director is back where he belongs with a
freewheeling, fiercely independent comedy drama.
Anne Hathaway is smartly cast as Kym, the straight-talking black sheep on furlough
from rehab to attend her sister's wedding. The first half is structured
as a series of blazing rows, as one by one the family members lose
their patience and lash out at the thoughtless Kym. The second half -
the big day itself - shows these old wounds healing, as forgiveness
overcomes rancour.
Jenny Lumet's
script is well constructed and unflinching in its depiction of family
trauma, but it's Demme's approach that sets the film apart. Improvising
much of the dialogue and all the camera moves, he creates a loose,
strikingly intimate sense of captured reality that forces the audience
into the action.
Rachel Getting Married is not
for everyone: it's overlong, unfocused and as smugly middle class as an
episode of My Family. But those who surrender to Demme's disarming,
almost participatory technique will find themselves overwhelmed,
exhilarated and inspired by the eternal possibilities of cinema.
