Saturday, December 13, 2008

Jason watches "Rachel Getting Married"

The point of this movie is that not everything revolves around Anne Hathaway's character, and she has to learn that. However, this movie totally revolves around Anne Hathaway. She's no longer the little girl in "The Princess Diaries" (which I never saw). And she's not just the pair of tits that straight men used to justify watching "Brokeback Mountain". Now she's a great actress, and pretty damn cool.

She plays Kym, who gets out of rehab for the weekend to attend her sister Rachel's wedding. Of course, everything should revolve around Rachel, but that just doesn't work for Kym, and hilarious dysfunctional family antics ensue. Okay, maybe not always so hilarious--the description of how she drove off a bridge and killed her little brother is not played for laughs (how the hell could you?), and there's a hell of a lot of pathos and fighting. What's really interesting is the depiction of how addiction and the horror it wrought continues to tear the family apart, even though she never goes back to using. The movie leans on a great many cliches, but thankfully doesn't fall back on that one. Anne Hathaway is the star, but it really is an all-around excellent cast that mostly overcomes the cliches of the story. Even the supporting players are interesting, especially the groom and his odd assortment of friends and family. And the wedding itself was very inventive, with a musical mix of all sorts of styles (African American, Indian, Jewish, etc.). It's a bit overrated (87% on the tomatometer), but still pretty good.

No comments: