I like the band TV on the Radio and Tunde Adebimpe, who is one of the lead singers, dabbles in acting and is featured in Rachel Getting Married directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Anne Hathaway. When I decided to see the film, I had not committed to writing a full review. I was going to use it as a segway to talk about an older film (Jump Tomorrow) which actually stars Adebimpe. However, I was pleasantly suprised by Rachel Getting Married as it has one of the most diverse casts I’ve ever seen in a film that is not in the least about race relations. [Cast members include Bill Irwin, Anna Deavere Smith, Debra Winger, Tamyra Gray, and Fab Five Freddy]
In the film, Hathaway plays Kym who comes home from rehab to attend her sister Rachel’s wedding. The story highlights the sibling angst between the two sisters and the precarious dynamics of the whole family which is fueled by Kym’s pain and need for attention and forgiveness for causing a very tragic family accident when she was high on drugs. The film starts out very darkly and you’re not prone to like Kym very much, feeling very sorry for Rachel who cannot completely focus on her wedding because of Kym’s antics. But what I like about Demme’s style of direction is that he is able to take command of your emotions and bring you into the story such that you are no longer just watching but a participant. You need only watch one of his other films to see his genious in this repect. [For example, the movie Something Wild which starts off as a very light road trip movie and turns into a dark psycho romp.]
In this movie, Demme uses a very loose handheld camera style to make you one of the friends and family gathered for the wedding. You are at once embarrassed for Rachel and sad for Kym. You doubt Kym’s sincerity in trying to make amends and fret for the dark cloud that seems to overshadow the otherwise happy event. Then Demme brings you into the celebration and your mood goes from dark to light so that when Rachel finally marries Sidney (played by Adebimpe) you are happy and hopeful for the two sisters who have reconciled at the very last moment. But it’s not necessarily a Hollywood ending, and things are a little less bright because Kym still has a lot of pain to work through and the wedding is only a brief respite from rehab. The film is a few days in a life of a very realistic family celebrating one of the most important milestones of life.
Of course there are a lot of themes running in this film: love, addiction, grief, joy, forgiveness. At a scene of the dinner the night before the wedding, within the close confines of the celebratory dinner table when all the friends and family are gathered, I was struck again by the diversity of the cast–black white asian and everything in between. During the dinner, Sidney’s mother comments that she believes this must be what heaven is like. Indeed.
For more information about Tunde Adebimpe’s turn in Jump Tomorrow, a considerably lighter “wedding” film, see this link at imdb.com: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0273300/
The Sepia Screen 