Rachel Getting Married Bilingual

 

 

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As an addiction professional, watching this movie wasn't entertaining...it was WORK! The setting was a weekend pass from an institutional long term drug rehab to attend a family wedding. The movie accurately depicts the hurt, pain, caretaking, misunderstanding, self centeredness, brokeness, and general dysfunction of the entire family system. The family carries past hurts and lives out their dramas in spades through the intensity of coming together for a family wedding. The addict in early recovery role of Anne Hathaway demonstrates the negative impact of family entanglement on recovery. She also role models many behaviors to be avoided in recovery, and how not to 'work the steps'.
Do not expect a light comedy. There is nothing funny about addiction and its insidious and systematic destruction of family. If you want a glimpse of how families are negatively impacted by addiction, it's informative. If you are working a program of recovery and you need a reminder of pitfalls to avoid, it's a good reminder. If you are in early recovery, make sure you talk with your sponsor. There is a lot to be learned, but be careful to not make the same mistakes.
John Derry, A Home Away Addiction Recovery Retreat (ahomeaway.org)

Short Attention Span Summary (SASS):

1. Kym (Anne Hathaway) gets out of rehab, just as ...
2. ... her sister Rachel's getting married
3. Kym immediately starts making waves as she does her best impression of "normal" within a dysfunctional group.
4. What the heck's up with the bridegroom (Tunde Adebimpe) and those gawd-awful glasses? I know we're trying for "regular" people here, but no self-respecting brother's gonna be caught dead in those things. (And couldn't they have found an actor with a personality?)
5. Prepare for long, awkward and painful wedding rehearsal dinner speeches ...
6. ... followed by a drawn out and inexplicably Hindu themed Christian wedding...
7. ... and the multi-cultural, eclectic choice of wedding music, speaking of which ...
8. ... expect grating and annoying music for most of the movie,
9. which is shot with hand held cameras to look like an amateur home movie, and succeeds totally in looking amateur.

You know you're in trouble when one of the high points of a movie involves two men in a dishwasher loading competition that's really a long excuse for a plot device.

This movie takes the story of a young woman who has been in rehab for most of her life, and who is suffering from terrible guilt over an incident in her past, and instead of capitalizing on her struggle to lead a normal life, they water it down with over-the-top multi-cultural trappings, and bad home video.

Hathaway truly shines, given the script she's been dealt, and is the only reason to watch this movie, except for a memorable scene with Deborah Winger, who plays the girls' estranged mother.

Recommended for fans of world music, other people's home videos, wedding speeches and the scientific art of dishwasher loading.

Kym: I am Shiva the destroyer, your harbinger of doom this evening.

Amanda Richards

Considering the negative comments posted on Amazon, I am surprised that Rachel getting married got such a rough reception and managed to upset so many viewers. As extremely violent movies can shock thousands of people, those reviews seems to be another example that stories that present reality in a strong and honest way, such as Madame Bovary, always tend to create virulent reactions.

I mention realism for instead of following usual narratives rules, which are to make movies with likable characters, Jenny Lumet wrote a screenplay where her characters show both their strengths and their flaws. Especially those of Kym, who leaves her rehab center for three days to celebrate the wedding of her sister Rachel. And as the movie goes, thanks to Anne Hathaway's perfect acting and also the hand-held camerawork used by Jonathan Demme which show the story in a raw but honest presentation, we get to see and feel Kym's anger as she tries to get rid of her own demons, her drug addictions, but also tries to defend herself against a family and former friends whom she believes still hate her for all the trouble she did to them. Though some viewers may not be pleased to see such a direct presentation of someone's life.

Also, in her storytelling, Jenny Lumet might upset certain viewers for she doesn't try to explain all of her characters' actions. True we get to learn glimpses about Kym's past, such as her fashion career and an incident that occurred between her and her brother Ethan, but Jenny Lumet doesn't try to give all the answers. As Jonathan Demme says in the commentaries, he wants the viewer to answer by himself all the questions that are left unresolved. This might unsettle several viewers, but believe me, it makes you more active while watching a movie and it generates discussion with your fellow viewers.

Earlier ago, I mentioned Madame Bovary because it is a book that got some virulent reactions for the public, including a indecency trial, because of certain things such as its realistic tone. As in Rachel getting married, there is a wedding in Madame Bovary. And as in this movie, we also get to see everything that occurs before that wedding, the villagers who prepare themselves in the morning, the walk toward the church, and the feast that occurs until the end of the night. And this way, just like Flaubert, Jonathan Demme wants us to witness all the little incidents that occur during the ceremony not just to fill up time, but to better immerse us in his story. To see Kym and her family as real people instead of characters. But instead of presenting to us their lives, we only get to witness in this movie a slice of their life, of Kym's life, and with no definite resolution at the end.

To conclude, it is a movie that is not easy to access because of its intention to represent a true reality. But offers another way of moviemaking, different from the Hollywood mainstream cinema.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Family Needing Recovery
4.0 out of 5 stars Dying for acceptance and love, March 29, 2009
By Jane Derry "ahomeaway.org" (Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada) - See all my reviews
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Published on Mar 29 2009 by Jane Derry

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