Movie-Rachel Getting Married

Rachel Getting Married was an Oscar nominated film, with Anne Hathaway nominated for best lead actress. She did not win.

Anne Hathaway plays Kym, a young woman just getting out of rehab, and on her way to her home with her family, where her older sister is about to get married. This character that Hathaway plays so well, is wrapped in contradiction, and carries the audience with her. At one moment I felt complete antipathy towards her, and the next complete sympathy. And that is how Kym's family reacts towards her too.

Hathaway really shows she has emergered as a powereful and wide ranging young actress here. I mean, I just saw her as Agent 99, very funny and tongue-in-cheek in Get Smart. And here, she carries this drama on her shoulders.

The movie is all about this weekend of her sister's wedding, and what an odd wedding it is. It is in no way traditional, and at times, I wished the wedding itself was not so prominent. I wanted to see more of the characters interacting than wedding guests dancing. Because it is the love/hate relationship between Kym and her sister, and them and their mother (played by the beautiful Debra Winger), that makes this movie so riviting.

Anne Hathaway makes Rachel Getting Married (2008) work. There is a good supporting cast, but without this excellent performance, the movie would not have worked. The characters are not soon forgotten, and Hathaway's Kym may become an iconic movie character.