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Reviews Counted:183
Fresh:158
Rotten:25
Average Rating:7.5/10
Consensus: Engrossing tale of family angst, highlighted by Hathaway's powerful performance.
Theatrical Release:23-01-2009
Synopsis: Young fans of Anne Hathaway's previous roles in family films such as THE PRINCESS DIARIES and ELLA ENCHANTED probably wouldn't know what to make of her character in RACHEL GETTING MARRIED.... [More]
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Debra Winger, Bill Irwin, Rosemarie DeWitt
Director: Jonathan Demme
The film, like the shindig, ends up dissolving in a schmaltzy brew of make-do-and-mend, complete with a sari-clad wedding accompanied by multi-ethnic music, whose PC touchy-feeliness one hopes is a joke but fears is not.
I found these heart-on-sleeve sequences really charming and open, and the people in them looked like real human beings and not actors - overemotional, perhaps, but overemotional in the way real people are at real weddings.
Top CriticCathartic, uplifting and lacking the earnestness that Hollywood ladles over addiction movies, this beautifully wrought piece is a joy.
Demme turns to Dogme-style filmmaking with this intimate family drama that's both funny and harrowing
One of Hollywood’s forgotten masters and one of its brightest new actresses team for what could well be an Oscar wild card.
Top CriticPacked with wry humour, decent performances and with a deep understanding of what makes our relatives so wonderful and exasperating at the same time.
Like any real wedding, it’s fraught with tension and acts as a catalyst to ignite simmering tensions.
Hathaway does well enough and one can understand Kym attempting to kill herself in the family car before happily returning to rehab. At the end, I felt like entering the Priory for a schmaltz detox.
Anne Hathaway turns up at some nice lady's wedding and rudely upstages her and the proceedings.
Top CriticHathaway vaults several stages along in her career with an intense yet sympathetic turn as the deeply-troubled, acid-tongued Kym.
Though the revelations it builds towards may seem a little obvious, Demme's deeply humane (and often very funny) film ensures they never feel anything less than true.
Those who surrender to Demme’s disarming, almost participatory technique will find themselves overwhelmed, exhilarated and inspired by the eternal possibilities of cinema.
Top CriticIt’s remarkable that, given how deeply unsympathetic and self-obsessed her character is for much of the film, Hathaway manages to make her so likeable.
Top CriticIf anyone can claw the Oscar statuette from Kate Winslet’s eager hands, it’s likely to be Anne Hathaway for her brittle, emotionally ragged performance as a recovering drug addict.
Top CriticYou’ll be very glad you were invited because this is a friendly, unpretentious bash, with not a meringue dress in sight. The speeches are funny, the music is ace and the mood falls just the right side of sentimental mushiness.
Director Jonathan Demme, who says he wanted to make “the most beautiful home movie ever made”, didn’t rehearse scenes before filming. He and Hathaway, as much as Lumet, deserve praise for creating a pariah at once close-to-home and unique.
Demme may be aiming at an inclusive message about the modern balm of family love - it all seems a little forced, emotions regimented by therapy-speak and aching political correctness.
Demme’s watchful approach reveals that even Kym has a good side. Weddings are rarely quite as calamitous as Rachel’s, but they are often events at which tensions are overcome and embarrassments forgiven.
It's Altman-esque, in good and bad ways, though by the end I confess I felt like the traditional mother of the bride, my eyes filling up helplessly even as I begged, "no more".
It's not Demme's most polished film, granted – but dysfunction is all the more piercing when you don't put a gloss on it.
Top Critic
July 09, 2009:
The Couch Tomato: Rachel Getting Married, W.
This week, we look at the Anne Hathaway's Best Actress-nominated drama Rachel Getting Married, Oliver Stone's tepid take on Dubya, W. and Samuel L. Jackson going psychotic (you... More...
March 26, 2009:
Forget about Rachel getting married, Kym's getting sober. 
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March 09, 2009:
RT on DVD: Rachel Getting Married, Milk Lead Super Fresh New Releases
Home video enthusiasts, prepare yourself for what may be the best week ever! This week you'll have to choose between Academy Award flicks Rachel Getting Married (Best Actress... More...
March 05, 2009:
Something old (cinema verite), something new (combo Buddhist-African matrimonial ambiance), something borrowed (Robert Altman) and something blue (the whole family). The Devil Wears Bridesmaid Garb.
More...
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