Anne has a date with Oscar

I must say...this trailer for Rachel Getting Married almost kept me from seeing the film. Fortunately my curiousity and desire to know for myself whether Anne Hathaway actually deserved an Oscar nomination or not, forced me to the theatre last week. I was pretty blown away.

I don't think there was anyway to cut a trailer that would do the movie justice, because...here's the thing...it's not a sound bite movie. It's not a Kate Hudson movie...it's not a Drew Barrymore movie...it's not even an Anne Hathaway movie. Anyone wandering into this thinking that it was going to be another slick Hollywood movie with tidy family squabbles and tidy romantic endings, had another think coming!

This is a family with a lot of grief on their plate. ( The reason is explained a third of the way through the picture in a perfectly pitched monologue by Hathaway.) We have Kym, who's coming to the wedding fresh from a nine month stint in rehab. It is clear that Kym has been wrestling with self-worth her entire life. Rachel, her sister, is the bride. Rachel was the one the family counted on to be perfect, to have her ducks in a row when everyone else was struggling, and boy does she resent it. Their father, who has so much love for his kids, that he is constantly adjusting and tiptoeing around them, and boy do they resent it. And then there is their mother, who seems to have buried her pain so deep that she is barely human. Perhaps mom has always been this way, but I think not. It seems to me that she is coping in the best way she can.

I have spoken to many people during the week since I saw the film, and I haven't found one who, like me, was sympathetic to Hathaway's "Kym". I am quite shocked at the lack of understanding, or empathy towards her. I personally, was forced to rethink my attitude of choice, and making life choices. It's the whole idea behind The Secret...ask and you shall recieve, make the bold choice and magic will follow, knock and the door...well, you know. I do believe we have the power in the choices we make. If we are strong enough to make them.

There's the rub. What if someone has so much pain, so much self-loathing and fear that choosing isn't even a choice for them? If you don't think you deserve it...if self-destruction seems the only answer? Maybe you don't want to choose well. Most of us have pretty developed survival instincts. We may all, at times, feel like square pegs. We've cried over spilt milk, and felt lonely and trivial. But, imagine multiplying it all by 10 or 20. There is a level of feeling out of place...that must become...unbearable.

I read this in Variety this morning. This is what James Mcavoy had to say about Ann Hathaway and the role of Kym in Rachel Getting Married:

"At her sister's wedding, Kym constantly behaves like the most important person in the room. It would be so easy to dislike Kym, but Anne makes you feel that her character is perhaps in another room -- both mentally and socially, albeit not physically, and therefore her calamitous outburst and limelight stealing seem like an ill-conceived attempt to connect. And in an extended post-wedding party scene, Kym dances with the group. This moved me to tears as I realized that her flailing arms and "look at me" gusto were the result of a self-conscious and forced attempt to fit in. In the end we see her dancing with her eyes closed among a hundred or so people and she is completely alone. That is a lot of empathy and understanding to garner from one shot, but Anne gives a performance so open and raw that I could not help but connect with Kym, even if her family was not able to do so."

Her character is in another room.

Well said.

This film is not always easy. I did lose patience with it a couple of times. In a documentary style of film making, Demme has made you a guest at the wedding. Like most weddings, sometimes you want to run screaming from the room. The toasting always goes on too long....the family is tense and ready to fight at any given moment, the reception is never ending and where the hell did they get all those musicians?

If you can, get out to see this film while it is still in theatres. If I was rating Rachel Getting Married based on the five star system, I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars.

And, yes, I do think Anne Hathaway deserves that Oscar nomination.