"Rachel Getting Married" is a film about a dysfunctional family whose eldest Rachel was, yes, getting married. However the main character is not Rachel, but her black-sheep sister Kym who is a recovering drug addict just out of rehab, and dealing with guilt brought about by the the tragic death of their little brother Ethan while under her care. The stress of the wedding brings out the best and the worst in the strained relationship of the two sisters which is the main crux of most of the movie.
This complex role of Kym gives young actress Anne Hathaway a very rich character (so different from those roles she was well known for) to bring to life, and she succeed with flying colors. Her performance is raw and realistic, and very uncomfortable to watch in its realism. That squirmy long-winded speech at the wedding rehearsal, that quiet speech at the drug addict meeting where she talked about Ethan's death, that big argument with Rachel about Kym's lies during her rehab, and especially that powerful climactic scene with their estranged mother Abby -- Anne Hathaway has proved that her acting talent is by no means lightweight. She was fully deserving of the Best Actress awards she had already won and the one she might win on Oscar Night.
As the titular character Rachel, Rosemarie DeWitt is also very good in depicting the stress of woman on the week leading to her dream wedding, and having to deal with an unstable sister who seemed threaten its perfection. The other actor of note is the long-absent Debra Winger, who really shone in her few scenes as Abby, the mother of the sisters. The aforementioned scene with Anne is heartbreaking in its violence. Bill Irwin is also effective as the over-solicitous and good-natured dad who does not know what to make of how his daughters are behaving.
The unfortunate thing about this movie is the technical aspect. The camera-work is the shaky and occasionally unfocused handi-cam style which can make some scenes very dizzying (but not Blair Witch dizzy, though). I do not know why there are so many inconsequential scenes that made it to the final print, as if the editor was not at work. Why were there were too many speeches at the wedding rehearsal? Why did they have to show entire song numbers during the ceremonies when excepts would have sufficed? Couldn't they have shortened that dishwasher scene? And why did they have to show about ten minutes of strangers dancing and merry making at the wedding reception?
So overall, the movie is one where very potent and well-acted dramatic family scenes were ungainly meshed with long and boring wedding scenes, seemingly as the filler to make the film longer. I think director Jonathan Demme (yes, of "Silence of the Lambs) had failed to rein in the indulgent excesses of the script by Jenny Lumet, thus making this film only a diluted success at best.
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