Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Hey Rachel, Get Married Already...


I have a feeling that Rachel Getting Married directed by Jonathan Demme is one of those films that will polarize audiences. Some folks will embrace the zany dysfunctional characters and the almost overwhelming information overload that occurs when jump cuts and hand held camera are used to compress about 70 hours into a two hour film. At times this seems at times have a kind of dizzying effect, but at other moments feels pretty static and extended. There is certainly more than a single feature film's worth of character and embellishment to keep track of here. This film is filled with a swirl of family relationships, wedding guests, musicians, relatives, and plot points, some of which are heavy handed and awkward. The main point of the action concerns a furloughed long term rehab patient coming home for her sister's East Indian themed wedding. This last detail makes for a trapping with weird ambiance. It's kind of like what happens when people use Disney as a theme for their wedding when they dress up as Sleeping Beauty or something like that.

Anne Hathaway is more than just a presence in this film as Kym, the sister from rehab, she is kind of a phenomena. She is most impressive when she is given the opportunity to react and respond to disclosures and events around her. Her eyes are especially expressive and she uses her body to describe and define her feelings about the circumstances in her world as well as the incisive dialog that is associated with her character and her relationship with her past indiscretions and tragedies and current relationships with her sister, mother, and father.

The most effective of her three parental relationships is the one who doesn't do or say much in the film. Anna Devere Smith plays Carol with a kind of stoic intensity. The camera loves this woman. We don't hear her say or do much, but the viewer knows rapidly who she is and what she is all about. Deborah Winger returns in a high profile independent film as Abby, Kym and Rachel's mother. I don't believe the character is given the opportunity to develop, she I also there mostly as a kind of presence, and although it is good to see her return to the screen, her performance felt like a bit of a let down.

Even more of a shortcoming was modern performance vaudevillian Bill Irwin who is cast as the father, His excessive emoting and constantly changing rubber-like face became pretty annoying after a while as did the device of him constantly trying to feed everyone in his family and in the wedding party. And least effective of all is a sequence where he gets engaged in a dishwasher loading contest with his son-in-law that ham-handedly ends when (spoiler in the next few words) the next plate in the stack turns out to be the plate that was used dead infant son. How profound.

Rachel Getting Married has some fine moments and Demme, one of America's best living directors can move evoke a mood and some fine cinematic moments. Yet by my comments so far you may come to the conclusion that there are indeed some major shortfalls in the script by Jenny Lumet who is indeed Sidney Lumet's daughter (and by the way, Lena Horne's granddaughter). She utilizes a clumsy three act structure that is driven by the three days that are covered in the story and that is a good part of the problem. Day one has Rachel coming home, going to a rehab session and encountering a fellow there who when she returns to the home later this guy is revealed out to be the best man in the wedding. I guess it is because they are addicts, but they both respond to immediately by having casual sex. In aftermath conversation Emma finds out Rachel has chosen her truly awful best friend to be maid of honor instead of her sister. Big Surprise: They have a big show down. Later in a interminable wedding banquet sequence with more jump cuts than a Godard film exercise, Emma painfully blathers on to families on both sides like she is back in her rehab group. And yes, another big family shouting match takes place later the night. So much for Act One.

So at this point, I'm thinking we have just witnessed the eve of the wedding, right? No way. Screenwriter Lumet daughter needs to squeeze another day of pain and angst out of Emma and the family so the script has a second act. I wanted to shout at the characters to shut up, buckle down and deal with their discomfort. But this would not be the stuff of independent film family drama. There is this kind of floating inevitable kind of psychological action involved in the film that seems to move forward on its own with people who are ultimately not all that nice or interesting (save Hathaway as Emma) that reminded me of how I felt about Alan Cummings and Jennifer Jason Leigh's The Anniversary Party from several years back.

Eh gads, then at last, comes Act Three with Indian wedding with bridesmaids in saris and an elephant on the cake. The vows consist in part of the large African American groom quoting almost the entire lyrics from Neil Young song. The ceremony and reception include the same loopy string players that are insistently practicing throughout the film and Robyn Hitchcock and reggae toastmaster Sister Carole appear out of nowhere at various points to do a song or two---Young, Hitchcock, and Carole were featured in other Demme films. What's that all about?

But...wait there's more randomness. Donald Harrison plays his saxophone at one point, a deejay keeps the party going, and Cyro Baptista and a troop of samba dancers even show up towards the end of the festivities. I don't think there has been a reception like this ever in the history of the world. No wonder mama Debra Winger wants to go home near dawn. And no wonder Emma is quick to get out the place and back to rehab early the next morning. It will take her days to recover from all this drama, multicultural stimuli and quirkiness. I know I was pretty tired by the time it was time to sweep up the petals and confetti.


posted by well-executed buffet at 1:26 PM
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