Movie Review: Rachel Getting Married, A wedding

The title of the movie is catchy enough, unlike the plot which revolves around Kim not Rachel, a recovering addict and alcoholic who spends a trying weekend at home surrounded by her dysfunctional family on tenterhooks, seems familiar enough doesn’t it? 

Kim (Anne Hathaway's)is out of rehab to attend her sister Rachel's (Rosemarie Dewitt) wedding. The family is made up of a doting, understandably over-protective father, a seemingly absent mother, a frustrated almost jealous sister, a dead brother and Kim herself who is supposedly remorseful for her behavior yet who does not show this by her actions. Her remorse seems limited to words and her actions are reckless and hence comes across as narcissistic. The entire movie seems to span a couple of days and this included two rehab sessions complete with the serenity prayer! 

There are some sparks of brilliance especially in the conversations between Kim and Rachel however there is too much chaos all throughout, non-stop singing, dancing, music and toasting! Some parts are extremely sleep inducing, especially the toast at the rehearsal dinner, if so many people gave such long winded toasts at weddings there would be no guests left!

I don’t know why the wedding had an Indian theme. The bride and bridesmaids were dressed in Saris with a rather odd sweater top kind of a blouse, the groom wore a sherwani, paneer was one of the dishes so I'm assuming it was Indian food, an elephant with a chariot adorned the wedding cake and to top it all Kim compares herself to Shiva, the destroyer! Maybe it was some multicultural, the world is flat kind of theme since the wedding was inter-racial although there was never a mention of race which was noteworthy, and then were Asians and South American dancers too! The camera work with the continuous panning of shots makes the movie almost seem like a home video. 

Despite the flaws, the movie would have been a good watch if the conversations were complete, if we'd seen more of the mother daughter relationship which seemed pivotal to the plot and if there was some closure and the unresolved rage was addressed. Anne Hathaway was nominated for the best Actress at the Academy awards for this performance.