"Rachel Getting Married" (released Tuesday on DVD) is the anti-"Watchmen" in this week of new-release films. Whereas the one is shot in a highly stylized, big-budget format featuring tales of superheroes in hiding investigating the murder of one of their own, the other is a simple tale, shot in a do-it-yourself manner, of a young woman in rehab home for the weekend to attend the wedding of her big sister.
Neither of them is likely to top any "feel-good" movie lists any time soon, but this is where their similarities surely end.
Anne Hathaway received widespread critical acclaim for her portrayal of Kim, the young former junkie who provides more than her share of awkwardness and infighting at her family's house in the days preceding Rachel's wedding. She was good enough, according to the critics who matter, to garner best actress nods at both the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards (she lost both).
She is most certainly good, but the rest of "Rachel" fails to fill out the potential the former "The Princess Diaries" star puts on display here. By "the rest of," I'm not referring so much to the other actors (they're fair to quite good) but to the movie's plot, camera work and pacing. They're all mediocre, at best.
Hathaway's role is notable for several reasons, not the least of which is that it's so much different and demanding than her past roles in the "Princess" series or as a fashionista's assistant in "The Devil Wears Prada." The 26-year-old Hathaway shows she's got the acting chops to propel her career in a new, promising direction. I don't see many of her peers — Kate Hudson, say — prepared to star in much more than a goofy romantic comedy alongside Matthew McConaughey.
Kim is a wreck on many levels. You never know what drama is going to come out of her mouth, nor what level of awkwardness she is about to bestow upon her family.
"Rachel" often feels like you're watching a dysfunctional family cycle play out before your eyes. The problem is, many of us have our own dysfunctional family cycles that are actually playing out before our eyes, and seeing such a largely depressing story onscreen may not be our first choice when it comes to entertainment. Adding to the "fly on the wall" feel of the film is a tendency to view the characters through amateur-looking shots that appear to be taken by a personal video camera. It's an at-times annoying tendency that threatens to become overdone on more than one occasion throughout "Rachel."
Needlessly long scenes at the reception do a good job at foiling any artistic merits the movie might have made along the way. There really doesn't seem to be much of a point, with no interesting conversations highlighted or plot developments in sight.
You know how you feel when you realize you've been at the reception of a couple you're only acquaintances with about an hour too long, and the only reason you haven't left yet is you don't want to say 1,000 good-byes? That's how it feels at the end of "Rachel." It really does feel like you're sitting there watching booze-filled people you don't really know that well act increasingly giddier as the night goes on.
None of the flaws in "Rachel Getting Married" diminish the talent Hathaway displays, but they do take away a good share of her luster. Too bad — she really is worth watching.
Joel Sensenig is news editor of the Review Times.