By David Gordon
“Rachel Getting Married” is a modern masterpiece of art-house cinema. The film is easily Jonathan Demme’s best in the 2000s, an impressive screenwriting debut from Jenny Lumet, and breathtaking to watch thanks to Declan Quinn’s cinematography. The film is in the style of “The Celebration,” the first in a Danish series called “Dogme 95.” “Rachel Getting Married” is shot on location in bucolic Connecticut using handheld cameras; sound and musical underscoring is only provided by people in the film.
“Rachel” tells the story of Kym, on furlough from rehab for her sister Rachel’s wedding. Kym is, for all intents and purposes, a narcissistic drug addict who can’t deal with not being the center of attention. She’s been coddled her entire life by her father, Paul, to the chagrin of Rachel, who, on the weekend of her marriage, wants to be the center of attention. Their mother is distant.
What makes “Rachel Getting Married,” so fascinating beyond the “fly on the wall” style of filmmaking, are the performances. Demme cast both actors and non-actors, many of whom he found working in bookstores and cafes. There was little to no rehearsal before each scene was shot. The result is one of the most natural films I’ve ever seen.
Looking back on the careers of many actors, each has one or two movies with which they’ll forever be associated. If “Rachel Getting Married” were more commercial, it would be Anne Hathaway’s career-defining piece (at this point in time, it’s arguably “The Princess Diaries”).
Hathaway, paler than usual, hair in a jagged-edged bob, loses herself in Kym. She’s a character viewers just want to reach out and hug, until they find out some of the despicable things she’s done. Still, there’s a layer of guilt that makes one just want to ignore all the bad. Hathaway goes for broke, delivering a skilled, fully-committed and, most importantly, beautifully restrained.
The “she’s my sister, so I love her, but I hate her as a person,” conflict is obvious in Rosemarie DeWitt’s performance as Rachel. The role of Paul would be lost on a lesser actor than Bill Irwin, who brings a great deal of humor and pathos to a deeply sad role. Debra Winger, who plays the mother, nails the few scenes she appears in.
The dynamics and character work between the actors are very apparent, and the two strongest moments occur when Hathaway and Winger get into a screaming match and when DeWitt bathes Hathaway, who could, at that point, feasibly be stoned out of her mind, but it’s never addressed, though one hopes not. These bits also happen to be the most emotionally naked.
The most interesting thing about “Rachel Getting Married,” is how race is dealt with. In fact, it’s not. Paul is married to an African American woman (played by Anna Deveare Smith); Rachel is getting married to an African American man (Tunde Adebimpe, lead singer of the band TV on the Radio), and they’re getting wedding is, presumably, a Hindi ceremony.
In other works, acceptance wouldn’t be so easy. This idea would be rife for conflict (it is a major source of conflict in “The Celebration”). The lack of racial tension says something major about the state of writing and filmmaking these days.
My major qualm: the last ten, maybe 15 minutes, when the film is shifted to solely focus on the wedding reception. This is largely unnecessary, except to show the eclectic characters Lumet has developed in action. It adds on an extra time that seriously detracts from the main ideas of the movie. However, this can be easily ignored.
Incidentally, the music in these scenes, and the way it’s involved within the scenes, happens to one of the strong points of Demme’s films. The soundtrack includes tunes by Robyn Hitchcock, Sister Carol East, and others.
“Rachel Getting Married,” will never be a commercial hit, but it’s doubtful that that was what the creative team was going for. They were, however, intending for it to be high art. And in that respect, they’ve hit the mark 100 percent.
Grade: A
(allmoviephoto.com)