Rachel Getting Married (2008)

Directed by: Johnathan Demme
Starring: Anne Hathaway

***1/2

The days and hours leading up to a wedding have got to be hectic. Emotions are at a high, everyone is running around to make the last minute adjustments so that everything runs perfectly. But inevitably, things can go wrong, those emotions can get the best of you and its probably easy to say things that you don't mean. This, in a nutshell, is what Rachel Getting Married is.

Anne Hathaway plays Kim, who is allowed out of rehab for the weekend to attend her sister Rachel's (Rosemarie Dewitt) wedding. At first, with the exception of the cliche best friend of the bride (Emma, Anisa George), everyone welcomes her with open arms. They are willing to let the past be the past so that this wedding can go well. What goes on for the next hour of the film would best be described as the wedding preparation. It is that and only that. Any drama or conflicts that occur are within that realm of the story. Basically, nothing all that exciting happens. What makes it work is the handheld camera work. A style that's done perhaps too often has never worked its purpose so well as in Rachel Getting Married. It had a two-fold effect. For starters, it got me as an audience member right in and involved with what was going on and even wide shots created the illusion that I was simply stepping back to get a breath. Additionally, the handheld work complimented the idea that a wedding is hectic and constantly moving in all directions with perhaps no rhyme or reason. This is what got me through what would have otherwise been a very slow moving portion of the movie.

We move on to find out more about Kim's life; what has happened to her and what she's done. This is where the story really evolves into what it is... a story about a family trying their damnedest to cope with what they've lost, not to pass blame while at the same time refusing to accept responsibility. There is a point where the frustrations overstep their bounds after Rachel discovers that Kim lied about her childhood while in rehab. Her overreaction is appropriate for a bride-to-be I suppose but within the context of the movie, it reached the point where I was tired of it all. It does, however, lead to Kim's inevitable backslide of sorts. We see that she's not completely cured, not necessarily regarding her addictions but with getting her life back on track and letting the past be the past.

The movie drags on about 20 minutes too long. It got to the point where I was ready to start fast forwarding because I knew everything that was left to be said or done and there was no need for it. I understand the need for closure at the end of a movie like this, but its almost more impactful to leave it a bit open ended. Suggesting that this story doesn't end... which it doesn't, would have been an important part of everything that has gone on. Unfortunately, we don't get that. The somewhat happy ending, while appropriate, might just have been the wrong choice.