Rachel Getting Married

Managed to squeeze into an early screening at Nova yesterday.

Did not like this movie.Its far too self-indulgent to be an effective family drama,a big chunk it lies frozen in a static state where people do nothing but argue and throw tantrums.Here's the basic plot:Rachel's (Rosemarie DeWitt) about to get married and on the day of the rehearsal dinner,her sister Kym (Anne Hathaway) graduates rehab and returns home to find her presence unwelcomed.People have shouting matches and rehash old disputes,they cry in bathtubs and stress about how horrible their lives have been.

What I hated most about it was the wedding itself,I can see what it was aiming for but it all seriously fell apart.Having Asians,Blacks and other cultures mixed into a heavily Indian-themed wedding,while having them say silly,profound things over dinner and embrace each other turns out like a bad joke taken too seriously.It was all too jarring,and there was absolutely no chemistry to be felt anywhere.The inter-racial bride and groom stood out especially,they appear together in almost every scene-hugging,kissing-but they could not be more disconnected,little of that love and emotion translates on screen and it doesn't help that Rachel's part was very badly played.DeWitt smiles all the time and that's all she does,as if all that smiling constituted for actual acting.The wedding itself felt like a cheap,fake affair with the Indian theme an obvious novelty and all the dancing at the end felt like an overextended tourism promo.

Anne Hathaway embodies the character completely,all that selfishness and awkwardness around people.But by the end Kym unveils herself to be a bundle of too many personal fuck-ups and thin cliche's-I don't believe she's a solid reason to actually watch this movie,or that an Oscar win is deserved.There's barely a story to cling on,and at the end nothing is resolved and nothing changes-(*spoiler)-Kym..just goes back to Rehab.A movie that shows little promise (watchout for Debra Winger's too-short,but affecting turn as the detached,unfeeling mother),but some re-casting and more focus on Kym would've made this recommendable,almost.

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