Movies you Might Have Missed: Rachel Getting Married
Jonathan Demme picked Anne Hathaway out of a crowd to star in his final masterpiece, playing a recovering addict attending her sister's wedding
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Your support makes all the difference.Next week will mark the first anniversary of the death of Jonathan Demme, director of The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia and Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense (a previous subject of this column). His final masterpiece, Rachel Getting Married (2008), drew on his experiences as a documentarian to fashion a truly affecting work about a recovering addict attempting to come to terms with her past.
Anyone in any doubt about Anne Hathaway’s talent need only check out her Oscar-nominated turn as Kym Buchman, a flawed protagonist released from rehab for a few days so she can attend her sibling’s wedding. Hathaway’s Kym is a complex, troubled character who’s been all but destroyed by an incident in the past that is never far from the surface.
The cinéma vérité style coupled with the honesty of the performance ensures one always feels there is an authenticity about proceedings. Remarkably, Demme had wanted to work with the actress since spotting her in a crowded screening five years earlier and immediately considered her for the lead.
Rachel Getting Married was written in just seven weeks by Jenny Lumet, granddaughter of Hollywood legend Sidney Lumet (director of Dog Day Afternoon and Network). A high school drama teacher, Lumet had written four unproduced screenplays before her grandfather approached Demme about the Rachel Getting Married script. Demme, ever the iconoclast, was struck by the lack of a traditional three act structure and the fact that Lumet had made no effort to present her characters as “likeable”.
The film was shot in 33 days and the music, unsurprisingly given the director’s track record, was absolutely essential. He invited musicians to compose the score live on set since the father-of-the bride is an important figure within the music industry and it would be conceivable that talented artists would be invited to the wedding.
Robyn Hitchcock makes an appearance, while Rachel’s husband is impressively played by Tunde Adebimpe, lead singer of indie rock stalwarts TV on the Radio. Somewhat surprisingly, the role was initially offered to Paul Thomas Anderson but he was finishing work on a film of his own – There Will Be Blood.
This is a beautiful picture filled with music and warmth even as it addresses the difficulty of recovering from a trauma. Very few films so expertly render the dynamics of a bickering family or the pathos of feeling as though you don’t belong at an ostensibly happy occasion; Demme was a true master of his craft and this is undoubtedly one of his finest works.
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