Rachel Getting Married (***1/4)

Imagine a middle-class woman from a mildly bohemian family hiring a good videographer or two to film her family on the weekend of her wedding. Imagine also that her sister has just gotten out of rehab—again—and arrived just before the rehearsal dinner. And imagine that, instead of excising all the heavy family drama, they hire an editor to make a really good home movie with everything left in. Consider that a recommendation or warning, as the case may be. Director Jonathan Demme, best known for slick works like Philadelphia and The Silence of the Lambs, here takes a less-polished approach (perhaps influenced by recent documentaries he’s made), working from a script by Jenny Lumet.

The sisters are played by Rosemary Dewitt (Rachel) and Anne Hathaway (troubled Kym). They have a love-hate relationship magnified by past tragedy, though it takes a bit of time to get to that. Hathaway, who started out as a princess with a diary and played angel in The Devil Wears Prada, curdles her nervous energy into a character who is not sweet at all, but is always the center of attention. Even her expressions of guilt seem narcissistic.

There are a lot more characters, and not everything revolves around the sister-sister dynamic. Just a in like a real wedding video, there are a lot of people you won’t get to know well but who all get to say something. In medium-size roles are Debra Winger, as the divorced mother of the bride and Bill Irwin, the avuncular dad. The groom’s extended family are all there, too. (They’re black, but the only significance that’s given is in adding to the multicultural-ness of the quasi-hippie, quasi-Hindu wedding, held at the familt home in Connecticut.) Dewitt may give the best performance.

You probably don’t have a family like the one in this movie, at least I don’t, but the dynamic of their conflict may yet seem familiar. Some of the best scenes perfectly capture the feel of arguments that repeat themselves and never seem to resolve. I’ve never known a family like this, but still felt like it was a real family. Though not quite endearing, even Kym becomes understandable.

It’s not all high drama. There are the musical interludes. (The movie has no score as such, but multiple performances by the musician characters; unsurprisingly, the happy couple favor world music over Top 40. ) And there are some funny parts, too. Lumet apparently lifted one sequence, a dishwasher-loading contest, from an incident involving her dad (director Sidney) and Bob Fosse. Like several other scenes in the movie, including much of the last ten minutes, it could have been edited out of the film without anything not making sense. And no doubt some people will come away from the movie thinking that a lot of it should have been edited out. And that they could’ve done without all of the handheld cameras, which Demme actually gave to the cast to film with. For better or worse, this is easily the most naturalistic feature of 2008.

I will say forthrightly that some people will be put off, or bored, by the narrative detours, unpolished camera work, and angsty drama that provides only an uneasy catharsis. While I occasionally grew impatient with the kitchen-sink structure, the movie’s best scenes are gut-wrenching, and the organic wholeness of Demme’s approach makes it one of the more original movies of the year.

IMDB link

viewed 11/6/08 at Ritz 5; reviewed 1/22/09

Finding Amanda (***1/4)

Addiction and prostitution are the topics for this indie comedy starring Matthew Broderick and Brittany Snow. He’s the not-too-wise uncle who volunteers for an ostensible rescue mission when he learns she’s been making a living as a Las Vegas hooker and also been using drugs. However, as a recovering alcoholic who still hasn’t given up his penchant for betting on horses, or lying to his wife (Maura Tierney) about it, there’s a real question as to who needs rescuing more.

Writer and first-time feature director Peter Tolan, whose television credits (Murphy Brown, The Larry Sanders Show, Rescue Me) outshine his movie ones (Analyze This and Guess Who, but also Stealing Harvard and Just Like Heaven) draws on that TV experience by making his lead character a TV writer. As the co-creator of Rescue Me, Tolan also knows something about realistically blending drama with comedy, and about portraying addictive behavior. This may emphasize the comedy more, but there’s rarely a false note.

Snow, best known as the teen heroine on TV’s American Dreams, is a variation on the hooker with a heart of gold, but that’s oversimplifying it. Both characters are more than the sum of their problems, and hers is not a victim. Notwithstanding her profession, she’s a not-atypical 20-year-old, albeit one who seems entirely too perky talking about blow jobs. Actually, she seems perky talking about almost everything. Telling her uncle about a man who was “cut in half” by a train, she comments, “That would suck.” Snow and Tolan do a good job in making her more than a caricature, though.

The portrait of prostitution is somewhat benign—it’s a comedy—but not entirely so. Tolan introduces one too-convenient (but comic) plot twist that prevents the story from becoming too dark, but also comes up with a smart, realistic ending that prevents it from becoming too light.

IMDB link

viewed 6/24/08 (screening at Ritz Bourse); reviewed 6/26/08