Rachel Getting Married

Contributed by Mike Fishman

On the heels of Lake City, another film dealing with family, death and loss but in a much more overt way. Rachel Getting Married, written by Jenny Lumet (daughter of Sidney) and directed by Jonathan Demme, is concerned with Kym (played well by Anne Hathaway) returning home from a stint in rehab for the wedding of her sister, Rachel, the excellent Rosemarie DeWitt. The dark, not–so-secret past this family shares is soon brought to light; some years ago Kym, high on drugs, was at the wheel of a car when she drove off the road and plunged into water, drowning her younger passenger-brother. While the filmmakers wisely do not use the death to explain Kym’s subsequent stints in rehab (she was already using drugs before the accident), Kym does confront her mother (the always-reliable Debra Winger), demanding to know how her mother could have left the boy in Kym’s charge, knowing that Kym was a drug user.

This pivotal scene exploring guilt and blame between the mother and daughter unfortunately borders on the ridiculous: Kym’s mother slaps Kym; Kym smacks her back, hard. The use of hand-held camera is intended to make it feel more real and in the moment but with virtually every major character being unlikable, with the exception of Tunde Adebimpe’s groom, the overall effect was of heightened drama bordering on melodrama. Such a scene would have been better served with less hand-held camera, the moving camera becoming a distraction rather than pulling us into the “action.” The emotional resonance such a scene could have had is lost, dissipated in the space created between the viewer and the fidgety camera; the confrontation comes across more as an interview gone haywire than a brutally honest conversation between a mother and daughter.

There are some wonderful, memorable scenes, in particular a toast scene where everyone gets their say including an of course wince-inducing Kym, who finally (unintentionally or not) reveals the depth of her problems; she’s not just a drug addict, she’s emotionally unbalanced. Hathaway does a laudable job of inhabiting a character fighting her demons, within a very dysfunctional family, and shows she has considerable depth to plunge as an actress.

The actual wedding and party seem to go on for days although in fact it is just one very long night, and in the morning, Kym returns to rehab, cognizant of the fact that she still cannot fit into this family of hers. The cumulative effect, given the unsympathetic nature of nearly every character, the quick editing style, and the lack of any catharsis, make for an exasperating experience. But, how else could a film like this leave you, except unsettled and perhaps ruminating on one’s own family and history of miscommunication? A conventional happy ending almost certainly would have made the film more predictable and with less lasting effect. By the same token, however, it makes for a not-particularly enjoyable experience. Now, what does that remind me of? Oh yes, my last family gathering. Just kidding.