Anne Hathaway is an actress who I never anticipated to receive the stardom she has. She started with The Princess Diaries, a mediocre Princess movie that wasn't terrible but never made you think to yourself "God she's going to be a star". Two princess roles later (Princess Diaries 2, Ella Enchanted) she finally did some more "adult" roles. A bit role in Brokeback Mountain at least showed people that she was capable of more than royalty, yet still something lacked in her more adult role. Get Smart and The Devil Wears Prada passed her off as able to play second fiddle to established actors (something already duly noted from the Princess Diaries movies). Now we have Rachel Getting Married a first for Hathaway in many ways. Not only is it the first time we see if she can carry a movie by herself that isn't catered to 7 year old girls, but also the first time we see her in a character that the audience hates.
Hathaway plays Kym, a recovering drug addict who has left rehab to attend her sister Rachel's (Rosemarie DeWitt) wedding. Awkwardness ensues as we find out that nobody really likes Kym. Rachel's best friend Emma is particularly Satan like towards her but its entirely understandable as the film goes on.
The first awkward scene ensues during dinner as everyone is toasting newlyweds Rachel and Sidney with beautiful words of encouragement and funny stories revolving around the individuals. This scene is really used to its fullest potential. Director Johnathan Demme uses this opportunity to make a key difference (and one of the only really) between real people and the people in the movie: What we laugh at. Enter Kym who, with good intentions I'm sure, attempts to toast the happy couple. While all the other toasts were fake and overly happy and every character laughed and laughed, Kyms speech failed despite ACTUALLY being funny. Kym awkwardly makes it all about her turning the speech into amends, and life lessons SHE learned in rehab.
The best scene has yet to come though. After the dinner a shouting match occurs as the immediate family travels home. At home Rachel and Kym fight about the speech. As an audience member I began to turn on Kym because of her ignorance to her sisters excitement. In a particularly risky move on the writers Rachel tells everyone that she's pregnant mid-conversation with Kym. Immediately Kym becomes defensive saying that was cheap and that this conversation was not about her pregnancy and fails to acknowledge her happiness.
Of course Anne Hathaway proves to be amazing at playing a narcissistic bitch who hates life. In a bold statement I'd say she's the best lead performance by an Actress this year easily. If this does foreshadow things to come I see a great career in her future. The seriousness and dark take she gives to the character is astounding and the many moments of sarcasm turn out to be a breath of fresh air from the serious tone of the film.
The movie has flaws though. Music is constantly being played at Rachels home and while sometimes it proved to be effective, more times than not it was frustrating and took away from the awkwardness of some scenes.
The biggest problem though is the manner in which it delivers itself. Take a movie like Atonement. It lightly punches your arm all throughout the movie until the end when it gives you a roundhouse kick to the face. Rachel Getting Married knees you in the head so many times in the beginning of the movie that by the end it looses its momentum and has the end feel mildly disconnected to the rest of the movie.
The movie also is nearly an unnecessary 2 hours long. Dance scenes, toasting the couple scenes, they drag on. Get to the point and move on. Other than that, Rachel Getting Married proved to be a nice start to the awards season and the indie-feeling was much appreciated. If the plot proves to be uninteresting for you see it at least for Hathaway. Her performance is certainly a caliber unseen yet this year. Grade - B+
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