Venus Rising

Film & BooksIssue: Sagittarius 08 & Honest Self Expression

Rachel Getting Married

Like real life-families who have a member struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, the focus of “Rachel Getting Married” isn’t on Rachel, even though it should be. It is on her narcissistic sister, Kym, who is out of rehab for the weekend to attend Rachel’s wedding.

Played by Anne Hathaway, Kym is a rollercoaster of guilt, anger, and vicious behavior. Her scornful wit and shameless self absorption suck everyone into her vortex for better or worse. It is hard to feel empathy for Kym until the film reveals the tragedy that lies beneath her madness.

Even though there are some similarities to “Ordinary People,” in “Rachel Getting Married,” Kym and Rachel don’t need therapists to help them express exactly what’s on their minds. They have no problem laying it all out there in front of anybody and everybody. My sense, however, is that such direct bouts of cathartic venting is much less likely to occur in real life. But the film’s painfully honest verbal sparring quickly gets to the heart of the matter as well as the scarred soul of a family struggling to heal from the disease of addiction.

The only cold fish in this film is the mother, played flawlessly by Debra Winger. She seems perfectly happy to remain on the sidelines of her family’s drama and her absence says much more about her coping skills than do her brief appearances. But her plan to keep her emotional distance disintegrates as Kym provokes her into a shocking moment of anger that is then quickly morphed by festivities.

All this angst is strangely yet effectively juxtaposed against the joy of a wedding that is so full of diversity and creativity and friendship and love that the viewer is still happy to attend. Using a hand-held camera and a very Altman-esque style, director Jonathan Demme moves through Rachel’s wedding weekend with a gripping sense of reality, yet he brings his characters only a few inches closer to resolution.

Such is life.