Kym (Anne Hathaway) is in rehab. As a matter of fact, she’s been in and out for about ten years, so it’s no surprise when she goes home to her sister, Rachel’s wedding (Rosemarie DeWitt) and behaves agitated, and self-centered. At first we want to slap Hathaway for her selfishness, but then an understanding of what makes her tick seeps in, and that happens by the definition of inner family dynamics and their mysteries. The documentary style footage feels like an in-your-face family home video unraveling the truth about what’s behind her addiction: A dead brother. Debra Winger delivers an outstanding performance as the divorced and unavailable mother who puts up boundaries not only toward her past but to her daughters as a result of her lost child. The movie’s dialog – a lot of it feeling ad lib – delivers to a familiar tension that occurs when emotions run high at family holidays and weddings. Hathaway’s character wants to be heard, loved and to fit in, and her performance tell us what we’ve known for a long time. Take her out of her “Princess Diaries” or her doe-eyed world of “Devil Wears Prada” and put her in the hands of a gifted director like Jonathan Demme and let loose. Demme may have been nominated for twenty Oscars in his lifetime – one most notably “Silence of the Lambs” – but it’s his Tom Hanks tale of a brother diagnosed with AIDS in “Philadelphia” that “Rachel Getting Married” most resembles, in original soundtrack and tumultuous circumstance. A powerful little film with a big message about love, loss, celebration and the ties that bind. Four Tiaras
