“You will know that forgivenesshas begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish themwell.”Lewis B. Smedes
Since ages we have been told to‘forgive and forget’ or that one needs to ‘move on’ as time is fleeting andnever waits for anyone. But in reality, how many of us can truly forgive?Forgiving someone else is difficult, but more arduous, is forgiving oneself. Guilt can be a very painful emotion to livewith, and becomes more grueling; if one is reminded of it day in and day outverbally and emotionally.
In his latest film, “Rachel Getting Married”, these are some of the facets that director Jonathan Demme has tried to examinein the backdrop of a ‘wedding’. Themovie starts off with a young woman, Kym Buchman, in her early twenties(AnneHathaway in an Oscar nominated role) coming home from rehab to attend hersister Rachel’s wedding. Like any home where a wedding is imminent, there is asense of ‘chaos’ and ‘stress’ with everyone wanting things to be ‘perfect’. In the midst of it all, there isjust one problem. The bride’s sister, Kym, is anything but perfect, and herarrival opens up a pandora’s box. She’s had a dark past and her arrival into the supposedly ‘happy family’ begins toexpose how dysfunctional the family members really are. What follows is aseries of conflicts and an emotional roller-coaster of seething anger, blame, guilt and unsettled resentment.
A wedding is when a family comes together and some things are buried under the hatchet in an attempt to share a joyous event. For a filmmakerit makes for a perfect premise for a ‘drama’ with multi-layered characters.When that filmmaker happens to be Jonathan Demme, the expectations are skyhigh. After all, he has directed brilliant masterpieces like “The Silence ofthe Lambs”, “Philadelphia” and “The Manchurian Candidate”. The latter thoughwas a remake of a 1950s classic was well-made nevertheless.
In ‘Rachel Getting Married’ however, Demme seemsto have turned a new leaf. He has tried blending in a multicultural, multiracial family drama with a heavy dose of musical backdrop. In his attempt to give the characters and the movie an exotic feel not only are the leadcharacters dressed in Indian clothes, cutting an elephant shaped wedding cakeduring the wedding ceremony, but he has also coalesced Indian classical musicwith salsa, and Jazz. In addition, in an effort to give the movie a realisticlook, the camera work is unconventional. For the most part, the movie looks andfeels like a ‘home movie’ shot with a hand held camera, with long shots, andwithout intricate cuts. The camera pretty much follows the characters aroundand makes leaps and turns as the characters do. Jump cuts are kept minimal, except during the ‘post-wedding’ dance sequence. The end product thoughsomewhat kinky, is a decent watch largely due to the superb performances by allthe characters.
The cast: The movie inits entirety belongs to Anne Hathaway. As the black sheep of the family, arecovering drug addict still nursing her mental wounds, she was phenomenal. Herbody language, her expressions of guilt, her anger, she was flawless throughand through. It was good to see her in a mature role, compared to hackneyedcomedies like ‘Bride Wars’. She was good in ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and ‘The DevilWears Prada’, but excels in this film. The Oscar nomination is justified, butshe had tough competition from the likes of Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet. The bride(Rosemarie DeWitt), who supposedly has itall, beauty, education, loving fiancé and doting parents, the cynosure of alleyes at her wedding, but with pent-up bitter sibling rivalry with her sisterwas adequate. Her character is well written and she has done justice to herrole. Bill Irwin as the protective father, who thinks he has forgiven andforgotten his daughter, but comes to realize quite the opposite, has done anear perfect job. Debra Winger as the divorced mother(who has re-married) ismarvelous. She mesmerizes the screen, in her short but strong role as animperial but susceptible woman with deep-seated sadness and anger. MatherZickel asKiernan, a fellow-recovering addict, who’s been sober for over sevenyears, was fairly decent.
Overall, I felt that Demme had apowerful script in hand(written by Jenny Lumet) but somewhere along the line the screenplay could not do justice to it. The editing was another sour point of the film. Some scenes(particularly the rehearsal dinner and the post-wedding dance sequences) looked never ending. Though he has handled the relationship dilemmas deftly, and did in the end manage to give it a very humane feel, the exotic theme and the overdose of musical extravaganza proved to be more of a distraction from the lead character’s pain and complexities. The film doesn’t end in tears or kisses; instead it is kept open-ended and left to the audience to make their judgment, which I personally thought, make it an apt ending.
In closing, I guess I was expecting a masterpiece, but I came out getting just a mini-piece of good cinema with a message.