DVDs in Review

Rachel Getting Married

Title: Rachel Getting Married (2008)

Release date: June 29 2009

Certificate: 15

Format: Reviewed on DVD, available on Blu-ray

DVD RRP: £19.99

Rating: 3.5/5

Anne Hathaway may have garnered an Oscar nomination for 'Rachel Getting Married' but that's not to say this engagement has been meant with flawless reception. Jonathan Demme's offbeat family drama is overindulgent in the details, weaving a rich family tapestry but neglecting to fill in the biggest gaps.

The plot sees Kym (Hathaway) coming out of rehab after a 10 year stay for drug abuse and the accidental death of her sibling. She's been granted a few days off to attend her sister's wedding.

This sister, Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) is living a seemingly perfect life - content with her relationship to her man, Sidney, and ready to escape the claustrophobic family house that strangles them of outward emotion.  

The family home is repressed - they avoid talk of the accident, they hold back emotions, they live fractured lives of quiet retrospection but this weekend they're hosting a wedding that brings a new family's love into their own, to give their lives that bridge of happiness it desperately needs. The only wildcard is Kym who seems to see through it all.

Jenny Lumet (daughter of master director Sidney) has crafted a script that focuses on the inner souls of her mixed bag of characters, while Demme's direction plays like John Cassavetes probing camerawork mixed with Charles Burnett's 'My Brother's Wedding'.

It's an intriguing mix but unfortunately it drags and has a tendency to focus on the wrong things. For example a pre-wedding toasting scene results in around a dozen speeches before Kym's, all of which add texture and cover plenty of different cultures but lack any drive or real resonance.

Only around half of this film is solid, the rest wavers uneasily with a mixture of speeches, music and dancing. Real life weddings are like this, but this isn't supposed to be a documentary (although it may play like one). Ironically drama has been sacrificed for realism.

'Rachel Getting Married' is thoughtful, expertly meshing drama and comedy but not as immediately powerful as it should be. It's a slow burner that will no doubt improve in the viewer's memory. Certainly worth an initial watch though if only for Hathaway's brilliantly underplayed performance. The DVD contains commentaries, featurettes, an extended Q&A session and deleted scenes.