Few fall releases have attracted much in the way of Oscar heat, making this a slow season for the kind of folks who refer to movie stars by their first names and love to make awards-show prognostications months in advance. That’s one reason there’s been so much hubbub about Anne Hathaway’s bracing turn as a (barely) recovering addict in Rachel Getting Married, a bustling new family melodrama by director Jonathan Demme. The toothy star of gentler fare like The Princess Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada and Get Smart clearly relishes the opportunity to tap into her darker energies by playing Kym, a sarcastic, troubled, narcissistic ex-model who gets a weekend pass from rehab to attend the nuptials of her sister Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) at the family home in Connecticut.
As the house fills with guests and musicians — Rachel’s beau is played by TV on the Radio singer Tunde Adebimpe, a fact that partially explains the musicianly cameos by the likes of jazz saxophonist Donald Harrison and longtime Demme pal Robyn Hitchcock — Kym inevitably proves to be quite the handful. Sick of her sister stealing the spotlight and robbing her of the attention of their long-suffering dad Paul (Bill Irwin), Rachel is adamant about not letting Kym ruin her big day. Yet no one in the family — which also includes the too-seldom-seen Debra Winger as their estranged mother — has really come to terms with a tragedy that took place years before, one that continues to fuel Rachel’s self-destructive tendencies.
With its mix of heated confrontations and joyful communions within the charged context of a family gathering, Rachel Getting Married is strongly reminiscent of Robert Altman’s A Wedding, Mira Nair’s hit East Indian variation Monsoon Wedding and Thomas Vinterberg’s far more vicious The Celebration (Declan Quinn’s handheld camerawork in Rachel couldn’t be any more Dogme). Unfortunately, the film’s boisterous energy and strong performances can’t entirely compensate for the easier contrivances in Jenny Lumet’s script, the actors’ occasional outbreaks of drama-class histrionics or Demme’s indulgent attitude toward the attendees. Indeed, the music-filled wedding scenes are protracted enough to make some viewers wish they could retreat to the dessert table. But with her sense of raw fury and even rawer hurt, Hathaway invigorates every moment that she’s on camera. Whatever her Oscar chances may be, she proves to be a far more compelling actress when she’s not stuck playing nice.
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