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Rachel Getting Married: Self-indulgent Faux-bohemian Nonsense
A review of “Rachel Getting Married” (2008), directed by Jonathon Demme and starring Anne Hathaway.
Watching this film has got to be one of the single biggest wastes of time of my life in recent years. Half the audience walked out at the particular showing I was at, and I was sorely tempted to go with them, but unfortunately for my patience and sanity I stuck it out to the bitter end, and got nothing in reward!
Rachel Getting Married is about, that’s right, you guessed it: a woman named Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) who is getting married. A motley crew of apparently well-travelled and musically talented bohemian wanderers congregate at her doting father’s house for a weekend of celebrations in honour of her impending nuptials to her reserved but loving business tycoon fiancée Sidney (Tunde Adebimpe). Into this happy event arrives Kim (Anne Hathaway), her troubled younger sister, fresh from her latest stint in rehab and looking to unpack not only her bags, but her caseloads of emotional baggage as well.
So far, so good in terms of premise, and the tension and mystery surrounding Kim’s place in the family is palpable from the outset. Unfortunately, any intrigue and interest we might be developing in the characters and their story is offset repeatedly by what feels like hours of pointless wedding speeches and other mundane activities.
Jonathon Demme’s 2 hour bore-fest feels like a self-indulgent student project with a fantastic cast but no one in the editing room. As I have already pointed out, the wedding scenes and speeches go on for an insanely long time whilst revealing virtually nothing about the characters. I was rooted to the seat in the hope that something would happen, and yes, there were a few dramatic emotional battles, but these were few and far between, and the annoying bohemian musicians traipsing around the house for the duration of the film interrupted any tension that might have been created between these clashes.
As a recent media studies graduate, I can be as pretentious as the next reviewer, but I really don’t see what all the fuss is about. Yes, Anne Hathaway is excellent playing against her usually frothy, ditzy type, but that’s not worth recommending sitting through 2 hours of appallingly paced drivel for; perhaps if half an hour had been lopped off in the edit we would have seen a tighter and consequently more interesting film.
2 Comments
A good piece of writing, very professional.
You made a good review here, well written and based in solid arguments. Anyway, I enjoyed the movie, I thought it was going to be just a bunch of cliches but for me it turned to be more interesting that I expected.