by Kat Apf

Created on: September 19, 2010   Last Updated: September 27, 2010

There are not many movies that make me cry.  Rachel Getting Married made me cry.  While parts of this movie were absolutely bizarre and odd, there was a feeling about  it which most people can relate to.  Many people feel their  families are insane and most families have secrets and tragedies.  

The story in Rachel Getting Married is Kym, Rachel's sister, has been in and out of rehab for a drug addiction problem for a decade and has come home for her sister's wedding.  

It takes a bit of time to find out what Kym's problem is and the beginning is long and a tad tedious.  There is a lot of talking and I felt as if I'd been thrown in the middle of an ongoing conversation and was missing something. But once the tragedy is brought to light, it all clicks in.

When Kym was sixteen and loaded, she drove her younger brother off a bridge and he drowned because she could not get him out of his car seat.  She's never forgiven herself for it.  A very intense part of this movie is when she spills this information at a rehab meeting.  

While most of us do not have this sort of tragedy in our own family, we all do have tension and some degree of dysfunction.  And this is why this movie rings so true.  There are usually many tensions and issues in a family  And that's what this movie is about and what makes it so disturbing.

The reality-show filming didn't please me at first. It's shot like a documentary. This wasn't a great choice to me but I think I understand why it was chosen; To make it seem more real.  I ended up getting used to it.

There are quite a few intense scenes in this movie.  Three that stood out for me are as follows: Kym's mother (Debra Winger) finally goes a little nuts on Kym. You can tell it's built up hostility over the tragedy because it was never addressed and dealt with. They end up smacking each other hard.  That scene was, I felt, played very well.  It was raw emotions.  

Another tense scene was when Rachel, her dad and Rachel's snippy best friend (Who clearly hates Kym.) are arranging the seating for the wedding.  Kym is not put at the family table.  The looks that the actors shoot each other during this scene seem very real and painful. Afterward, the Groom and the Dad have this odd dishwasher stacking contest.  Dad yells for more plates and Kym gets him a stack of them from the cabinet.  He pulls a few off and underneath is the younger brother,

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