Rachel Getting Married

Director: Jonathan Demme
Year: 2008
Rating: *

Holy god if Anne Hathaway gets nominated for an Oscar for this movie I’m going to… be annoyed and bitch about it here. This is one of those movies that depicts an imploding family and tries to make you care about whether they make it through. It only works if you care; otherwise, it’s an orgy of seething self- and sibling-loathing that I don’t find enjoyable to watch.

Stomping her way through her role as a belligerent and destructive alcoholic, Hathaway just didn’t show me enough nuance to prove that she’d deserve a nom; cutting your hair short and taking frontal-nudity-featuring parts that break your Disney mold do not an Oscar winning actress make, honey. Whether she was trying too hard or not enough, I can’t decide. Mostly, I just didn’t care.

I should note that I read an interview with the writer talking about how she wanted to feature a biracial marriage without addressing the matter of race. The whole interview felt a little too “Ooh look at me breaking the mold because I’m NOT talking about the racial element.” Sounds to me like she’s a big ol’ Brooklyn-dwelling 35-year-old hipster who pays $50 bucks to look like she paid $5. Just pay the $5. Talk about race or don’t talk about it, don’t talk about not talking about it.

See "Ordinary People." Skip this.