Rachel Getting Married

(2008)

Directed by

Jonathan Demme

Review by Zach Saltz

Weddings are by their nature rather cinematic, with their rich tapestry of oddball eccentrics showing up every blue moon, off-color wit wrapped with latent underpinnings, and lots and lots of alcohol – usually followed by sex at an exotic location (otherwise known as a honeymoon).  It is no wonder that some of the finest ensemble pieces ever made have centered around weddings (Altman’s woefully underrated A Wedding, Fassbinder’s The Marriage of Maria Braun, and even the above-average Julia Roberts vehicle My Best Friend’s Wedding come to mind) and two of the great American classics of all time – The Godfather and The Deer Hunter – open with magnificent wedding ceremonies that set the tone for the rest of the pictures.

Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married (not to be confused with the similarly titled Margot at the Wedding from last year) is another masterful evocation of sublime character study that uses the central conceit of a wedding as a means to congregate the screen with multifarious and wonderfully original characters, each facing their own catastrophic dilemmas as they smile artificially as the big day approaches.  The film takes place over the course of the weekend of Rachel’s wedding, during which time a family whose members have been kept apart for an extended period of time (and for good reason) will be forced to reconnect and attempt to reconcile the traumatic events that have led to their dispersement.

The film stars Rosemarie DeWitt as Rachel, who is getting married to Sidney (played by Tunde Adebimpe, the lead singer of the rock group TV on the Radio).  The two appear happy enough and it is surprising how little time is spent actually establishing their relationship.  The heart of the movie is Rachel’s family, which is about as dysfunctional as any family this side of John Irving and Tolstoy.  Attending the wedding are Rachel’s sister, Kym (Anne Hathaway), who has been permitted to leave rehab for the weekend after nine months clean and sober (whether this is true or not lies in serious question), Rachel’s earnest and enthusiastic father and stepmother (Bill Irwin and Anna Deavere Smith), and her reserved and sporadic mother (Debra Winger).  While these are the central characters of the film, Rachel’s house is occupied by an amusingly prosperous cacophony of Sidney’s relatives, the couple’s friends (including Rachel��s catty best friend/maid of honor, Emma, played by Anisa George) , and rarely-fatigued musicians who provide the film with a jazzy diegetic background.

Kym’s relationship with Rachel and the rest of the family is dangerously fragile because she is a chronic liar who is also wildly selfish and inconsistent.  Indeed, in the film’s most cringingly awkward extended sequence, Kym unleashes a detailed and genuine, if not self-absorbed apology at a group dinner the night before the wedding.  While the other members of the wedding give the couple their blessing, Kym uses the attention she is receiving to focus only on herself.  This is masterful acting here by Hathaway because most other actresses would play this scene as a stuck-up conceited bitch eager for attention showered upon her; but Kym’s apology seems the product of someone who, while attempting to be rehabilitated and cleansed of her past, has forgotten the very basic customs of social and familial decorum and manners.  Their father tries to remain upbeat by ignoring the issues that have plagued the family, but this only works when they are forced to put on a smile.  Like most families dealing with their problems, the family in this movie unfortunately adheres to the notion of “out of sight, out of mind” – until circumstances dictate that they come to grips with the reality of their dysfunction.

Rachel Getting Married has been advertised as a mainstream comedy, which it is anything but.  There is so much sadness in this motion picture – the overwhelming grief remaining in this family at moments reminded me of In the Bedroom – and it is only accentuated with the Hathaway character who, according to the trailer, is billed as a cross between Sarah Silverman and Courtney Love.  But there is something deeper to the Kym character; her maniacal self-absorption derives from the unresolved guilt arising from a tragic accident that shook the family to the core, leaving her as the sole responsible party. 

The central appeal of Rachel Getting Married is that, despite its overarching themes of guilt and family turmoil, the movie, like all weddings, contains moments of complete joy and happiness.  One of these moments is the dinner featuring Kym’s apology.  Another moment is when Sidney and Rachel’s father compete in a dish-off, seeing who can fit the most dishes in the dishwasher.  Another one of these moments is when Kym returns home after disappearing the night before the wedding, and sees her sister putting on her wedding gown.  Bypassing all the strife of the last few days, Rachel unconditionally accepts Kym by hugging her.  And when the wedding comes (which Demme wisely spends a great deal of time filming), it is truly a momentous event – not because of the marriage of Rachel and Sidney, but because of the rekindling of Kym and her family.

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