Blog Review: Rachel Getting Married

Director: Jonathan Demme
Producers: Neda Armian, Jonathan Demme, Marc E. Platt
Written by: Jenny Lumet
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin

Music, entertainment, family, and love are what make weddings enjoyable. Or is it? What’s missing is the family screw up who makes the embarrassing wedding toast and brings back painful memories in a time of happiness. Sadly, although Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) is getting married in…Rachel Getting Married, it is her sister Kym (Anne Hathaway) who is stealing all of the thunder.
Kym is a young recovering drug addict getting out of rehab, nine months sober. Her first stop is home to see her sister Rachel, who’s wedding is in a few days. She is ready to come home but seems to expect some drama with her return. It seems her father is happy to have her home but when she sees her sister Rachel, there are some underlying hints that Rachel isn’t as happy to see Kym as Kym is to see Rachel. Kym continuously brings up how thin Rachel but says it disappointingly. The audience gets a sense that Rachel’s fluctuating weight must have been the only flaw Kym could ever point out about her sister, but now she can’t anymore, causing Kym even more insecurity about herself. Kym obviously feels unwelcome in her own home but is striving for acceptance from her family. Her father, although he wants her there the most, he won’t let her drive or go anywhere without letting him know. The audience soon learns that there is a stronger reason about where Rachel’s anger stems from. It is also learned why Kym’s mother is also not close to her children and chooses to be distant from them.
The rest of the movie deals with Rachel and Kym trying to reconnect and Kym trying to figure her life out before her sister’s wedding. Although there is craziness from wedding planning as the day gets nearer and nearer, the love and hate between the two sisters and Kym’s problems starts to show more and more throughout the movie. In the end, it is seen whether or not the sisters are there for each other despite all that they have been through.
Rachel Getting Married is an amazing movie which shows the difficulties of family. All of the actors and actresses in this movie do a fabulous job of becoming their characters and make the audience believe that they are going through these problems that they show. This movie should be watched by anyone who enjoys raw, independent films. Beautifully written and acted, Rachel Getting Married is definitely worth watching.