Yay! Finally!

Great great movie. It's a snapshot of a dysfunctional family in the vein of Margot at the Wedding and Ordinary People. Jonathan Demme's direction is superb; I didn't even mind the cam-corder effect.

Debra Winger is brialliantly cold. But this is definitely Anne Hathaway's movie. She has two scenes where she is amazing and Oscar-deserving.

A

This was amazing. Anne Hathaway's performance is nothing short of a revelation - it's easily the bravest, most affecting work from an actress seen so far this year and totally deserving of awards consideration. The film itself is also fascinating to watch - it's relatively simple in concept and really only consists of a few major scenes, but there's so much beneath the surface here with every character that you can't help but find yourself compelled. Jonathan Demme's direction is fantastic, and the handheld camera effect gives this a personal, almost voyeuristic touch. The other actors kind of get lost in the shuffle amidst Hathaway's performance, but Debra Winger and Rosemarie DeWitt both make a solid impression. Highly recommended and one of the best films of the year so far. A

It doesn't have a release date here yet..? Arghhh..

Anyway, most antecipated movie of the year for me, yeah.

I finally got around to seeing this tonight... I mean, I've been a fan of Jonathon Demme's since Stop Making Sense hit repertories way back when...

...and ya know - - it's a pretty good movie.



Anyways, I have just two comments to make about it:

1. I broke my usual rule about reading reviews before seeing a film I'm planning to see. I read just the first teaser paragraph of Roger Ebert's review from his front page when it came out a couple weeks ago. It read, "The rules say that critics don't discuss movies after screenings. After I saw Jonathan Demme's 'Rachel Getting Married' for the second time, however, a friend asked: "Wouldn't you love to attend a wedding like that?" In a way, I felt I had. Yes, I began to feel absorbed in the experience. A few movies can do that, can slip you out of your mind and into theirs." - - and I couldn't agree more.

2. The timing of the reveals in this story was exquisite!



4 out of 5.

Anne Hathaway delivers an astounding, career-defining performance in this small, emotional Jonathan Demme-directed drama. She plays Kym, an ex-model and frequent visitor to drug rehabilitation facilities. Kym has returned home to Connecticut for her sister Rachel's (Rosemarie DeWitt) wedding. Kym's presence revives long-simmering family tensions. Every performance in this film is outstanding. Hathaway, DeWitt, and Bill Irwin are the standouts, but the entire ensemble functions as an energetic, realistic whole. Also, the screenplay by Jenny Lumet (Sidney's daughter) is terrific. The situations are interesting and the dialogue rings true. Outside of Demme's strange decision to spend so much time concentrating on the extremely diverse wedding musical guests (it started to test my patience), this is a perfect slice-of-(dysfunctional)-life drama.

A/A-

One thing's for sure - - Rachel Getting Married pales beside Margot At The Wedding...

Margot at the Wedding was a huge disappointment. The Squid and the Whale was far better.

There's more than enough good stuff in here to make it worth your time, particularly the performances. Rosemarie DeWitt, in particular, just rips your heart out. I loved her. The movie is warm and inviting, although it is worth mentioning that all of the best scenes are undoubtedly those in which the characters are fighting and/or yelling. Make of that what you will.

But the film is also irritating way more than it needs to be, whether it's Demme's awfully self-conscious shaky cam, or the curiously cloying way the movie just won't stop shoving its multiculturalism down your throat. What a tacky wedding!

Wow. I went in expecting only a great performance from Anne Hathaway which I got, but I didnt expected to be as affected leaving the theatre as I did. I got in the car, and was just put back, as was the audience I was with who sat through the whole credits. The movie isn't incredible or ground breaking, but it's very eye opening to the audience in certain ways. The film is very real, and raw in relation to families, and situations that haunt us for the rest of our lives, and in those moments in the film like the discussion of Ethan and Kim's event, or the second discussion about it in the living room, really moved myself. Anne Hathaway was excellent. This will be her defining moment from now on, she's not a princess any longer. Rosemarie DeWitt is haunting as Rachel. The rest of the cast is fine as well, but the movie is all about Kim and Rachel, and the past and working on their future. The wedding, as a side note is tacky as hell and menitoned before but thats fine. The hand held/shaky came thingy worked really well in some instances (the car accident/the fight between Kim and her mom) and in other places, like the first 10 minutes when where following Kim up the stairs I didnt feel like seeing Anne's ankles. It was rough to handle at times, but I get the useage of it. The film is very good, Anne should get a nomination but I don't think a win, but we'll see. Very good A/A-.

Agreed. Hopefully RACHEL is more like the wonderful PIECES OF APRIL.

Errr... my comparison was between two dysfunctional family wedding movies, not a cue for an analysis of Noah Baumbach's career - - and I thought Katie Holmes had left the planet?

(Fortunately, there are some discerning fans of Margot At The Wedding here at KJ...)

I'm one of the Margot fans. Hopefully Rachel is at least as good, if not better. Hah.

In other news, I'm going to see this sooner than I expected at a Film Festival here!

I found Rachel to be a better film than Margot. While both films have very strong performances from the leading actresses Rachel had more connectability for me. I liked Demme's hand held camera work as it gives one the sense of being a fly on the wall of these peoples lives. Plus I felt it helped the home movie feel I'm guessing he was trying to imbibe. Anne Hathaway and Rosemarie DeWitt give remarkable nomination worthy performances that anchor the movie, they truly convey a sense of sisterhood and all the emotional drama it entails. Yes, the wedding was over-the-top in its tackiness. But given the heavy emotional baggage Kym brings home with her from rehab it was a welcome respite. Plus it looked like it was entertaining as hell. Rachel Getting Married has its flaws but as it is in life if theres more good than bad we tend to overlook them, and theres more than enough good moments in here.

Grade A-

I thought it was a good movie, but hardly a movie i could ever love. Another solid B from me.

http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2008/11/11/mature-drama-brings-out-the-best-in-hathaway/

Didn't disappoint me a bit.

Having antecipated this alot over the last month or two, it's with great joy that I found the very same things I was hoping for: marvellous acting, sharp and spontaneous writing with a few twists on its sleeve, and a flow close to real life, when a scene just proceeds freely when usually you'd pick the "best" moment of it and cut the rest. It's a genius decision by Demme and co. and it really makes you part of the wedding. Probably the best exemple of this approach is the whole rehersal dinner scene culminating with Kym's speech.

Speaking about Kym, Anne Hathaway just goes all the way here, drawing both nervous laughter and devastating emotion (still thinking about her introduction speech at the reunion.. ) - she so deserves the Oscar nomination she's getting, and she'll probably be my personal favorite to win too. Also Oscar-worthy are their co-stars, particulary Rosemarie DeWitt – this one, a real revelation, and in just a few minutes of screentime, but incredibly powerful in them, Debra Winger. Not wanting to overrate the Winger hype even more, it’s one of those short performances that leaves you thinking for a long time, and lets you fill in the gaps. Personal wish: see both nominated next year. If not, then at least one of them. As for Bill Irwin, didn't know him though his face is definitely familiar- he's extremely good too, definitely a tricky role to play. SAG award for Best Ensemble, now!

I felt shivers through parts of this. A few weeks ago, after seeing Entre les Murs (The Class), I wished Hollywood would make more of these docu-style dramas. While Rachel Getting Married isn't exactly from Hollywood's big factory, it's probably the closest we'll get of a "real" family drama these days. While I admit I'm kind of a sucker for family disfunction dramedies, this one has just moved to the top of my list.

Pretty standard layered character drama elevated by a sharp script and terrific performances. Hathaway and Dewitt are brilliant... I'm not sure about the Winger buzz though. Other than having such few lines and a result the performance almost unfairly coming off as unnoticeable, I thought her blowup at Hathaway was a bit over the top. I thought Irwin was better.

It's the kind of movie that succeeds in everything it sets out to do, but at the end of the day there's not enough to seperate it from the pack of the "family drama" subgenre for me to ever consider watching it again or remembering it as more than "Oh yeah... Hathaway and Dewitt playing angry sisters at a wedding... I remember that movie" footnote when browsing IMDB.

4/5

Btw, I think they should use Hathaway's speech at the dinner table for her Oscar clip if she gets nominated... I wasn't ga ga over the performance up to that point, but that scene... wow... definitely one of the best single acting moments of the last couple years. That's one thing you can say about Hathaway is that she can elevate herself in certain scenes like that one and the phone call in Brokeback... not that she wasn't good in the rest of that film and great in this one, but yea, those moments of greatness makes me think that as much as any up and coming actress she has the potential to jump the ranks to an era defining one, maybe. She did just turn 26 after all...

Pretty much agree with both of these comments 100%.

I dunno, I definitely didn't hate it, but I'm not sure I liked it, either.

I enjoyed the diegetic score. I thought the best moments in the movie were when Demme was like, "You know what's stupid? Plot."

But yeah, it felt really forced at certain spots, and the editing was obnoxious more often than not. The hand held camera work didn't bother me, but I think there are definitely better examples of this type of aesthetic out there.

This was pretty excellent. I personally found the "shakycam" use to be brilliant. All of the characters in this film felt like real people, as if we were just following them around and watching them. Or, more appropriately, as if you were a guest at Rachel's wedding who was snooping around the Buchman house. Because of this, parts of it are certainly awkward/uncomfortable to watch because of the emotional heft behind them, which I assume was Jonathan Demme's intention. Anne Hathaway's stunning lead performance as Kym has a great deal to do with the film's power; Kym is unstable, self-centered, nervous, awkward, flamboyant, and even charming (essentially, a true three-dimensional character), and Hathaway sells all of these qualities in the character equally well, including the pain bubbling underneath her bravado. Rosemarie DeWitt has the less flashy role despite being the title character but her acting is no less impressive than Hathaway's. Debra Winger gives a nicely controlled performance one might find somewhat chilling in her brief screen time, while Bill Irwin is also solid as the overprotective dad. My biggest qualm with the film would actually be some of Demme's stylistic choices (some of the musical interludes and toasts in the film go on far too long) but that didn't damage the current of brutal emotional honesty running through Rachel Getting Married. A-

The camera is one of the only things that I didn't like about it.

Libs, wasn't it the tackiest wedding ever?

It's only tacky if you don't believe it. :O

Between my girlfriend and I, we have 6 very distinct races and cultures.

I would never in a million years dream up a United Colors of Benetton fest like the one displayed in the film. It all came across as very dishonest with a hint of pandering.

I remember everyone being pretty well justified. And again, I bought it completely...I never doubted that for this family, in their world, that such a wedding not only could take place, but should. After all, not everyone can be loyalfromlondon.

It's, you know. Not the wedding I had or would ever have.

But I appreciated the fact that race/the different cultures was never even mentioned.