Karen Watching a Movie

I try not to watch trailers or read movie reviews, because I find that they invariably contain spoilers (even tiny ones), and they often color my thinking about a movie before I've even seen it. A certain amount of hype or buzz is unavoidable, but I do frequently find myself in the satisfying position of sitting down to a movie that I know very little about. (This sometimes backfires, as when I thought that "The Sixth Sense" would be simply a psychological thriller and it ended up scaring the crap out of me—so much that I had to sleep with the light on when Andy went away on business the week after I watched it.)

So when I sat down to watch "Rachel Getting Married," directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Anne Hathaway, I expected quirky (I got that) and fun (wrong, oh so wrong!). This movie was such a downer, but I am still very glad I watched it.

Hathaway (who I now know is extremely versatile) plays Kym, a 20-something addict who gets to get home from her rehab program in order to attend her sister Rachel's wedding. Rachel is played by Rosemarie DeWitt, who I didn't know because I don't watch "Mad Men," but I liked her very much. I really enjoyed just looking at her. Rachel is finishing up her PhD in psychology, so both sisters feel they know quite a bit about mental health, but neither thinks the other is right about anything. Many sisterly conflicts and injuries from the past are alluded to (or told to us, in some cases), and I think that the two sisters' relationship is the most realistic part of this movie. They love each other and hate each other—and with good reason.

I had some complaints with the movie. For instance, a huge part of the plot centers around a past family tragedy, and I thought that in many ways it was unnecessary to tell us all about it—or possibly even to include it at all. Indeed, some of the scenes that were meant to be the most climactic and dramatic fell flat for me (I'm thinking of the scene in which Hathaway confronts her mother, played by Debra Winger). The smaller scenes were much more successful, with facial expressions telling much more than the words being spoken. (I guess this highlights my opinion that the acting was great all around, the script less so.) I also found that the wedding reception itself, which was great fun to watch, went on for too long without adding anything new to the plot or the character development. Demme was clearly having a blast with all the musicians and dancers, but we didn't get anything more out of it by that point.

On Twitter, Nancy suggested that it was one of the few movies that might fare better on the small screen because that would lessen the vertigo-inducing effects of the hand-held camera. And then Laura sent me this article about the genesis of that dishwasher-loading competition scene between the father (played wonderfully by Bill Irwin) and the groom (played by Tunde Adebimpe, but it's actually a very small role).

Comments

[Elena]

Hmm. I agree with much of what you say. I also loved Rosemarie DeWitt in this movie. I've never seen her in anything else that I can recall. I thought the family tragedy was a crucial part of the plot. It was so heart-wrenching that it explained much of what Anne Hathaway's character and the others were going through. The scene with Debra Winger was over-the-top and rather disturbing. I'm glad I saw the movie too.

[scott]

The Sixth Sense was excellent, but if it freaked you out that bad then you're a pretty sensitive movie watcher!

[Wendy]

Did you notice Robin Hitchcock playing at the wedding? That was a fun surprise for me.

[Karen]

Oh yes, but I was tired of the reception by that point. (And I had seen his name in the credits, so I wasn't surprised. Yet another stupid spoiler!)

[Katy]

1. I loved the reception - I could have had more!
2. I am the same exact way with reviews (esp evil NY Times that practically tell you the whole entire story!), and the same exact thing happened with me with The Sixth Sense. I made my bf come to the bathroom with me at night, and I still have to consciously forget certain scenes which have haunted me for a long time!!!
3. Thanks for the dishwasher link. We've had more than our share of childish dishwasher "discussions" in our house :)
4. I am interested to see "centers around" in your posting. My sophomore English teacher forbid us from using that phrase and I've shied away from it ever since. He argued that it was impossible to logically center around something, since the center is in the middle, so you can only center on something.

[Karen]

1. By the time the reception scene came along, I was so tense and anxious from all the drama that I could barely enjoy it. I kept expecting "something" to happen.
2. I still now and then expect a corpse to be in my closet. How I wish I could unsee that movie!
3. I'm the dishwasher geek in my family!
4. You're right, "centers around" should be "centers on" -- it's not something I was ever taught, so I tend to forget about it when speaking/writing colloquially. Thanks for the reminder!