Any anticipation for "Rachel Getting Married"?

A.O. Scott likes it. I'm looking forward to seeing Debra Winger in something substantial again.

Yeah, I've been anticipating this since reading the article in the NYT fall arts preview. This part pretty much sealed it for me:

And he decided pretty early on, he said, to approach “Rachel Getting Married” (Oct. 3) as if he were shooting “the most beautiful home movie ever made, trying to capture that feeling you get when you look at home movies, that you’re in the room, that this is really happening.”

I love stuff like that.

this movie is amazing. my favourite of the year possibly. i absolutely loved it.

and winger is fantastic. a small role but one that defines the entire movie.

plus fab five freddy! and sister carol! and robyn hitchcock! as themselves!!

I hope this purported "home movie" feel means he avoided those FULL-SCREEN CLOSE-UPS he is / was so fond of.

This looks like my type of film; I really can't wait. Also, the AV Club gave it an A!

do they ever give movies a V?

SO EXCITED

Moderate excitement.

will be fun seeing her in this role

neu hathaway vs neu katie holmes

vs neu mandy moore pillowfight round-robin championship

she was really terrible on SNL last night...

this is pretty good, I didn't know Hathaway had it in her. The Deep Dark Secret kinda melodramatizes things tho. And if grooms are really singing Neil Young songs during the ceremony and doing so much other mega-hip shit, I'm suddenly grateful for the chicken dance.

Bill Irwin and Winger standouts in support. The actress who plays Rachel is good but distractingly resembles the great Christine Lahti.

i love christine lahti. how bout that movie, leaving normal?

yeah i need to see hath. oo i could go tonight

(she always seemed like she had some pretty awesome talent, actually)

Amazing movie.

During the toast at the rehearsal dinner I cringed and looked away like I was watching a horror movie or No Country for Old Men. Hathaway is irritating, dramatic and self-absorbed in such a perfect way.

movie looks pretty fuckin lame but i would obliterate dat

did Rudy Ray Moore say "dat" a lot?

I still haven't seen this but probably will this week.

Let's go!

This lived up to my expectations. I could just watch rehearsal dinner toasts for hours.

Cool! I'm watching this tomorrow.

This lived up to my expectations. I could just watch rehearsal dinner toasts for hours.

― jaymc, Saturday, November 8, 2008 11:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

me too!!

Just saw this last night! My favorite of the year, I think! Really hard to watch parts of it because it felt soo real (thanks to the incredible performances, the brilliant script AND the stunning home-movie aesthetic)...I think it hits close to home for a lot of people; the 'this is not your family...but this is your family' tagline is so true.

so this is really Demme's Comeback Film, eh?

After that Manchurian Candidate remake he could have filmed himself sitting in a room and belching and it would have been a comeback.

(answer: yes, it's his comeback film!)

i thought this was pretty great

I liked this very much. Bill Irwin reminds me of every do-gooder, conciliatory dad I've ever met. Some lame review I just skimmed remarked on the "obligatory" happy ending -- did he watch the same movie?

Also -- wow, Debra Winger. That hug between her and the two daughters will keep me up at night.

I enjoyed this but I'm not about to call it the greatest thing ever.
Favorite thing about the film is the use of live music.

this is about as good as his Manchurian (ie, good)

Oh, right, you liked it.

A dissenter (ie, Worst Film of the Year):

http://moviesintofilm.com/2008lists.htm

When Rachel Getting Married wasn’t just plain stupid (as in the dishwasher-loading competitions between the family patriarch and his future son-in-law, set to a screechy, out-of-tune violin nervously sawing “Flight of the Bumblebee”), the movie trotted out the seldom-seen great actress Debra Winger (who, in a sleeveless black gown, looks radiant, although she's more delicate now than in the underrated treats of her well-spent youth, Mike’s Murder and Black Widow), then fulsomely coasted on her status as an aloof icon, and ultimately pulled the stuffing out of her and us with a scene in which Anne Hathaway (playing her junkie daughter) punches Winger in the face. Is this the only way Demme could (hope to) lend credence to Jenny Lumet’s stick people screenplay?...

Black Widow. What a treat!

Black Widow is crap! Mike's Murder IS underrated, although not the near-masterpiece of Antonioni-esque alienation that Pauline Kael described.

Which reminds me of an amusing little encounter I had with Lance Kramer at the opening night party of last February’s Portland International Film Festival. While we were dancing standing in place to the strains of a fez-sporting, faux-Egyptian ensemble (opening night film: The Band’s Visit), Lance, who only knew me from my writing, and was meeting me in person for the first time (and for the last time, as it would turn out) hit me up with: “You come across like an asshole!” Before I could even choke on my red wine in a Jack Benny-esque, “I beg your pardon,” young Lance emended his observation to, “but like someone who’s earned the right to be asshole.” Ah, yes, well, now, that’s more like it—isn’t it? Having earned the right, uh hum. (Elsewhere in the conversation, this blond bearded youth regaled me with an incredulous, “You seem so nice! You seem so nice!” Was he expecting the Son of Satan? And all because I pinched Philip Seymour Hoffman’s doughy cheeks?)

^^ yeesh

I see it isn't only music critics who suck.

Wait -- The Mysteries of Pittsburgh was actually filmed and released?

Haha for a second I thought that was you, s1ocki and I was like "wow mark pinched PSH cheeks?"

"Emended"?

This film is a horrible, shrill, self-indulgent mess.

YOU'RE a horrible, shrill, self-indulgent mess

Though having said that, the central scene where Kim faces off against her sister and father is pretty good.

xpost - I'm not receiving any international acclaim that I know of though

Man, that "worst of" list is almost Armond-worthy.

"this is about as good as his Manchurian (ie, good)"

I can't believe Morbius liked the remake.

Although compared to that awful Charade do-ever it seemed good, I guess.

I would like to see this.

no way, alcohol poisoning and narcissism are awesome

yes, that's what I usually tell the bride and groom upon congratulating them.

(xxpost)

pro tip: if you don't like weddings, avoid a movie called "Rachel Getting Married," there is probably going to be a wedding in it

i don't know if i dare ask this, but how in the hell were the musicians a metaphor

I don't know if I dare repeat this, but I am curious.

Weird: I feel like this is missing the most on-the-nose arrangement of symbols going in this whole thing,* which is to have an event that is this magically harmonious mishmash of everything in the universe (yeah yeah harmony, see, like music), and then introduce the one bum note that inevitably brings out discord. I mean, let's not get so into trying to outsmart the director's intentions that we ignore the way stuff actually plays out on the screen.

― nabisco, Wednesday, May 13, 2009 1:58 PM (4 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

pro tip: if you don't like weddings, avoid a movie called "Rachel Getting Married," there is probably going to be a wedding in it

you look like what the guy from death cab for cutie sounds like

i think it was the robyn hitchcock troubadour on the lawn thing that set my wife off

I got annoyed that no one looked uneasy or bored during the toasting scene or the ceremony, except Hathaway, of course, the black sheep. And everyone had something appropriate and touching to say even though their characters were supposedly ad-libbing.

The dishwasher scene was interesting.

I really disliked how patronizing the movie was. The shoehorn poignancy of the cake cutting. Practically the entire ending. Someone doesn't want the audience to make a mistake about what any one character might be feeling.

And the multi-culti thing discussed already - it seems so self-congratulatory! The movie seems that way, not the characters.

And everything was in perfect taste - the movie pandered to its audience's tastes. And some DJ plays dancehall or something and everyone dances. Everyone dances to everything, including the old people, and no sits it out as if to say, Do young/old people really like this music. Someone improvises on - what was it, an alto sax? - and everyone is moved. I think in a typical mixed crowd more people will be bored by jazz than not, but in this fantasy land people are weeping they're so moved.

And the family members, including Rachel, behave so pettily and become so frequently shrill that too often the movie seems to be screeching at you. The person I saw it with pointed out to me that that is how sisters are, and I think she was talking about herself and her own sisters, which she has a lot of. But even that idea about how sisters are I found repulsive. And anyway, the movie didn't seem to have natural emotional cadences. A lot of the emotions behind actions and words seemed exaggerated beyond theatricality, and contrived.

Not worth writing a paragraph, but Manchurian was obvious and not good at all.

i had a very different reaction than you but i wonder if maybe it had less to do with the movie and more to do with your own experiences with family and weddings vs. my experiences with those same thing

And the multi-culti thing discussed already - it seems so self-congratulatory! The movie seems that way, not the characters.

And everything was in perfect taste - the movie pandered to its audience's tastes.

I still don't understand this complaint. Demme doesn't ask you to congratulate his or this family's good taste; some of the speeches and clothes are in fact tacky to my eyes and ears, and that's okay. This is how THIS family acts. Besides, the point is clear: look at all the tension boiling underneath the surface of this "perfect" family.

the kid has been dead for presumably... 12 or 15 years?

I think it had been more like 5.

Besides, the point is clear: look at all the tension boiling underneath the surface of this "perfect" family.

More like: look at how that jerk Kim is ruining the perfect wedding with her stupid drug problems, hey remember when she killed little bro?

But even that idea about how sisters are I found repulsive.

they are, have you ever been around sisters? FUCK THAT.

i liked this movie i mean yah what i remember it wasnt all that subtle but on the other hand that scene where anne hathaway got slapped in the face so maybe emotional subtlety is overrated

yeah seriously--the movie was totally within the non weird realm of brother and sister interactions

I mean, the sister's relationship seemed totally real and not theatrical at all

More like: look at how that jerk Kim is ruining the perfect wedding with her stupid drug problems, hey remember when she killed little bro?

Yes but by the end they realize that the fuck-up is trying and that the real villain is their emotionally unresponsive mother. You know, like in Ordinary People.

I H8 U MOM

i think most anyone would've been able to keep their composure in that situation - the kid has been dead for presumably... 12 or 15 years?

Speaking as someone who lost a family member 21 years ago, this is kind of bullshit. Especially at emotional life-changing family events, you have no idea how that resurgence of grief can sneak up on you and blast you with hurt. It may not be the weeks-long extended agony that fresh grief can be but that type of emotional response even decades after a death is more than possible; I saw it with my parents at both my wedding and my brother's wedding.

(Having not seen the movie, I don't know if the portrayal was at all convincing, but as a baseline act it's not at all far-fetched.)

yeah i understand finding the moment forced or contrived (or a disappointing "point" to an otherwise colorful stand-alone scene) but his reaction is in no way implausible. Irwin was great, and I'd love to see him do more dramatic work in film.

Even though I'd heard about his stage work (dude did Virgina Woolf!) It was really was weird at first to see Mr. Vaudevillian from Bobby McFerrin videos and the Cosby Show being serious.

Yes but by the end they realize that the fuck-up is trying and that the real villain is their emotionally unresponsive mother. You know, like in Ordinary People

oh come ON. The greatness of RGM is that there really are no villains, in that Jean Renoir sense. Even Debra Winger has her reasons; it's impossible to dislike her (and you understand why she had to make a life apart from her girls). Mary Tyler Moore is just a kewpie doll with calcified joints.

I'm not saying it's not more nuanced, but the climax clearly was the sisters bonding over her spurning them. Everything after that is basically mutual acceptance, even the mega-wasp maid of honor gives Kym a nod.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDIQp5pbAl8

this is a controversial movie

dude did Virgina Woolf

I read this in a way you didn't intend and immediately thought wow, he looks good for his age

haha i thought about amending in another post but figured i'd wait and see if someone caught it

re: the plate and events that stir feelings of loss/grief, btw, doesn't this occur ... about one night's sleep after he learned that his daughter is having a child?

I should also note, btw, that I don't think anything in this was even close to as theatrical or contrived as just the standard conventions of a film drama, but I can see how certain scenes feel that way in contrast to the floaty home-movie aesthetic around them -- there are definitely seams where you notice that you are shifting from loose improvisational stuff to a Scene. (I actually think the plate thing is one of the more interesting instances of that, because what seems like some fun scenic malarkey -- a dishwasher competition -- suddenly prompts a living-room drama scene.)

Even though I'd heard about his stage work (dude did Virgina Woolf!) It was really was weird at first to see Mr. Vaudevillian from Bobby McFerrin videos and the Cosby Show being serious.

― da croupier, Thursday, June 11, 2009 4:30 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

did u know he's doing godot on broadway now with nathan lane and john goodman? want to see.

nathan lane's the big uhhhh in that but I hear he's good

ya.

Sisters, yeah. And I hate women, too.

I was thinking last night that I don't think it would work on the stage, that it was dramatically dishonest. No villains? That's Sophocles & Aeschylus. That's a big, fat so-what.

The movie didn't let the conflict(s) breathe and be real. You could see straight through the scenes to the author's original outline on the page.

I haven't seen this since it came out, which isn't that long ago, but probably just long enough to not really have my impressions down right.

I didn't really have any problem with its aesthetic except that it was overstuffed with diegetic music sources. I think for the most part the handheld camera handled spaces well, even if the movie lacked spatial connectedness. Plus it made me kind of motion sick.

And the wedding seemed overplanned, and how could it be without someone not showing up or screwing up or whatever?

The families - in some ways they were indistinguishable except for being different races. Families are more heterogeneous and weddings become lumpy. It doesn't seem like anything is happening at this wedding, that anyone in it is real except for Rachel and her immediate family. The drama's very sealed off from its own movie.

Even Debra Winger has her reasons; it's impossible to dislike her

Oh, I disliked her plenty. And Kym was completely right, her mother was culpable in leaving her in charge of the child.

I liked this very much. Bill Irwin reminds me of every do-gooder, conciliatory dad I've ever met. Some lame review I just skimmed remarked on the "obligatory" happy ending -- did he watch the same movie?

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, November 11, 2008 2:59 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark

I remember feeling the same way as whoever that reviewer was.

This lived up to my expectations. I could just watch rehearsal dinner toasts for hours.

― jaymc, Saturday, November 8, 2008 6:56 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark

This was the most trying, armrest-clawing part of the movie.

That's how I felt, and it was intentional.

Every toast I've heard like theirs is endless and self-congratulatory.

It's so strange that people had such differing reactions to those toasts, and I can't really mentally account for it -- I don't think it's a matter of what kinds of weddings people go to, but I don't know what it is. I thought there were a lot of points of great verisimilitude and richness in a lot of them: I think I mentioned the part where the young Asian guy trails off in his inarticulate stoner toast and everyone laughs, and I was also interested in the father's nods to the serviceman in the groom's family, the way you clearly sense/assume an anti-war position on his part and the diplomatic/generous way he just keeps saying "we want to see you home real soon"

(he does it multiple times and each time it's just so perfectly and naturally in character, with different inflections that just make so much sense)

I can appreciate this, these opinions about the toasts.

I just watched this movie. I knew that it was supposed to be like kinda dramatic/heavy or whatever but I wes in no way prepared for what an unpleasant and excruciating viewing experience this would be. Everything about the wedding and its planning and etc was so fucking spot on (despite it being such a ridiculous wedding), like all the very trite "humorous" shit ppl would throw in and the way everyone laughed at it and all that, which made the whole amends thing feel so much more real. Also I haaaated the hand-held camera at first but came to appreciate it as the film went on.

i do really like this movie

"I didn't expect you to kill him, sweetheart You weren't supposed to kill him!"

favorite film of 2008, though it'd be interesting to see in again.

Everything about the wedding and its planning and etc was so fucking spot on (despite it being such a ridiculous wedding), like all the very trite "humorous" shit ppl would throw in and the way everyone laughed at it and all that, which made the whole amends thing feel so much more real.

ha i feel like this is part of what i liked about it, though.

Loved this movie and made me an Anne Hathaway defender 4 lyfe. Dishwasher scene still kills me.

oh shit, bill irwin. the clown.

Like, I don't remember the last time a scene shifted tone so suddenly and yet so naturally at the same time.

jaymc, why are you reviving all these movie threads from 5–10 years ago?

5.

someone's gotta do it.