I think the one reason that people stay away from this film is because of its lead star. Despite it almost being 10 years since The Princess Diaries film which ultimately brought her the fame that she desired, she still struggles to shake off the 'chick flick' image that that film portrayed, I have to say she didn't help herself when doing a second Princess Diaries film or Ella Enchanted, however since her performance in The Devil Wears Prada back in 2006 and brilliant performances in the likes of Brokeback Mountain, Becoming Jane and Get Smart, I knew this girl was set for greatness.

Don't steer away from this film because she's the girl from Princess Diaries, she delivers an amazing performance here and you really forget she was that awkward young teenager back in 2001.

The Plot

The plot of the film is very simple, Kym is released from rehab for a weekend, due to the fact her sister Rachel is getting married. That's pretty much the plot, however it does delve deeper into the reunion between attention seeking Kym and her family, and hidden truths start to come out throughout the film.

The Cast

Kym- Anne Hathaway
Rachel- Rosemarie DeWitt
Keiran- Mather Zickel
Abby- Debra Winger
Sidney- Tunde Adembimpe
Paul- Bill Irwin

My Opinion

Some of you may recognise the name of the director, Jonathan Demme was actually the director of Silence of the Lambs and I have to say he has completely steered off direction from that film and has delivered something very, very special.

The film is very special as far as cinematography goes, it is usually very unlikely within a film for a 5/10 minute section to be filmed all in one shot, no breaks just the actors acting and the camera rolling constantly until the scene has ended. You get this quite a bit during this film and it really shows the talent of the cinematographer, the director and most importantly the actors for being able to do that scene in just 'one take'. It made the film more real.

You do get the feeling when watching this film that Demme saw it as some sort of documentary, at the beginning we were quite put off by the picture quality and camera handling, however the whole film just has this raw edge to it, and you soon forget that it's filmed a bit weirdly to conventional films, and you really do begin to feel for the characters, whether it's sorrow, hate or anger towards them.

The film was also quite special as it was scored live. None of the music in the film is created in the editing stages when a composer sits down and creates a piece after watching what's going on, on screen. No, in this film, they get musicians to play whilst the actors are acting, this is very unconventional and quite risky as the musicians did not know what was going on around them all the time, and they were creating pieces of music which may or may not be perfect for this particular scene.

Anne Hathaway was absolutely fantastic in this film, was it worth an Oscar nomination? Yes I think so, however there is no doubting that Kate Winslet deserved it over Hathaway. There is no doubt that this girl is going to be big in a few years, she is so versatile and has delivered so many different and intreging performances, I think if you look at the list of films that she has coming up, including a Judy Garland biopic, you'll see that another Oscar nom is in the bag for her.

The rest of the cast are just as brilliant, they deliver some brilliant lines and at times take the focus away from Hathaway and just deliver brilliant performances. I think this is due to the brilliant direction from Demme who really took a risk with this film and it really paid off.

I think the acting is the best bit in the film, Hathaway delivers a brilliant performance as the girl who just can't understand why people are not thinking about her every second of every day. She really expects the spotlight to be on her all the time, and when it's not, she makes things go her way. The film does deal with addition and the way families cope with an addict in the family and how they may deal with the consequences of this. This film had a good twist in the middle, and the way Hathaway told it was quite painful to hear and quite upsetting.

Final Opinion

It was quite a bizarre Oscar nominated film is my opinion, it's not conventional, but the direction in this film was just tremendous and because of it, the actors were brilliant and the way the film came together was brilliant. Yes, the start did come across quite boring, it takes a while to get into it, but I'm glad I left it on as it really was a good film. Hathaway shined in this role and it showed really how versatile she is.

A great film, one that I think a lot of people don't know about, including my review there are only at this point 4 reviews on this DVD which is shocking considering how well this film did at awards season.

Learn more about this author, Kirsty Fowler.
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