Tuesday, November 11, 2008

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Rachel Getting Married

Wowsers, folks. I experienced a real doozy tonight. Rachel Getting Married is getting some Oscar buzz, and I can't see any reason to argue against it. There's a great score within, first of all -- all performed within the world of the film itself, so it gets extra points for that. Jenny Lumet's screenplay is tightly written, subtly conveying the dysfunction that makes this family function. Jonathan Demme and Declan Quinn have this documentary-style thing going on. It puts you in the moment, and I found myself quietly applauding at toasts, chuckling with the family, guilty about spying on those intimate moments between siblings. Effective work, this.

Excerpts from an AIM conversation:

It's a dysfunctional family movie, and it's shot like a documentary, so it feels super-realistic. At the same time, it feels like watching someone get beaten up, and you're just standing by, letting it happen. Some of the characters can be awfully loathsome....some parts are also really adorable.

There's just such an uncomfortable tension in the air. And Kym (Anne Hathaway) is just so aggravatingly self-centered, and Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) is just so goddamed unforgiving, and the dad (Bill Irwin) is just so annoyingly clueless, and the mom (Debra Winger) is just so despicably cold....but they're all REAL. Like, i could easily identify with them as a family unit.

I'd gladly see it again. ****

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