by Hajnal Farkas

Created on: October 26, 2009   Last Updated: October 27, 2009

Despite the 'chick flick' sounding title Rachel Getting Married is a drama made in 2008. It was directed by the American filmmaker, screenwriter and producer Jonathan Demme. He is famous for directing The Silence of the Lambs. Naturally since then he has directed several films such as Philadelphia, Beloved or The Truth About Charlie. The screenplay was written by Jenny Lumet. Anne Hathaway was nominated for Oscar in the category of Actress in a Leading Role. The winner finally was Kate Winslet for The Reader. The classification is 15 years and over. The running time is 114 minutes.

Main cast:

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Anne Hathaway Kym (Rachel's sister)

Rosemarie DeWitt Rachel (the bride)

Tunde Adembimpe Sidney (the soon-to-be husband)

Bill Irwin Paul (Kym's and Rachel's father)

Debra Winger Abby (Kym's and Rachel's estranged mother)

The plot:

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The film presents a weekend with Kym's family. She is a young woman who is just released from rehab for the weekend because of her sister Rachel's wedding. Their mother and father divorced years ago and both of them have new partners. Rachel and Kym live with their father. Kym actually spent a long time in the rehab centre.

When she gets home she has to face that her family members haven't forgotten her past and the relationship between Rachel and Kym is quite bad - they fight a lot. Rachel made up her mind and asked her friend to be her Maid of Honour. Kym insists that she wants to be the Maid of Honour as originally was planned. She doesn't accept the purple dress the Bridesmaids wear. Paul, their father starts to protect Kym but when Rachel tells that she is pregnant she becomes the protected one.

There is a rehearsal dinner party where everybody knows the soon-to-be-married couple and what experiences they have had. Kym asks apologies from everyone and talks a lot about the twelve-step programme to the guests and destroys the cheerful atmosphere.

Can the girls stop fighting? Can they manage the wedding without any problems? I want you to discover for yourself.

My opinion:

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It was quite a strange film. The beginning of it was quite boring and slow moving. It was strange that the soundtrack of the film was actually live music, so some musicians invited to the wedding were playing music while the actors played their role. As the music wasn't written in a studio after the film was ready it didn't follow the atmosphere of the plot. It was very strange in some cases.

Jonathan Demme has done a great job because the actors' performance in this film was brilliant. There wasn't much action in the film but the emotions and atmosphere had the main role in it.

Anne Hathaway is a brilliant actress and she was a perfect match for the role of Kym. She had some tearjerker plots in the film. She was authentic and looked really as an addict.

Rachel's character wasn't my favourite. I didn't like how she took offence at almost everything Kym was telling or doing. Rosemarie DeWitt played her role very well.

The sisters played the leading role in the film but I have to highlight the father and the soon-to-be husband. I loved their competition to fill the dishwasher.

The film was shot in a naturalistic style which makes it even more unusual. I think this film is interesting enough to watch it once but I don't think I will watch it again.

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