Rachel Getting Married

I always knew that Anne Hathaway had great potential and with this movie I’m convinced that Hollywood is in safe hands at the hands of this breed of newcomers; and Anne Hathaway belongs to this new breed. If you think she was good in The Princess Diaries, in The Devil Wears Prada and even in the side role as Jake Gyllenhall’s wife in Brokeback Mountain, well she sure has achieved greatness in Rachel Getting Married. She has grown up, no more romantic flicks for this young prodigy, she’s all set to ride the waves, or well whatever that means. The story was what hit me, other than Hathaway’s acting that is. And at the end you just can’t help feeling sorry for her character. Kymberley or simply Kym is a recovering drug addict, portrayed by Hathaway who gets permission to go out of rehab for a few days to be a part of her elder sister, Rachel’s wedding played by Romemary Dewitt. This concept was very touching to me, because normally when people come out of rehab, their family donot want anything to do with them. So Kym comes back home and her father and sister is happy to see her. But that is when things start going downhill. I’m very sorry to say it, but I hated Rachel like anything, well basically I hated everyone in Kym’s family. They were so preoccupied with Rachel’s wedding that people forgot that here is a girl who is just out of rehab for a few days and who needs all the attention and care that she did not get for the last few years. Did they care about her feelings, what she thought, what she wanted to say, how hard it was for her to be with her family, how badly she wanted to feel accepted, how much she wanted to say that was sorry, but nobody would let her, no one was ready to listen to what she had to say. As we progress through the movie, we witness the tragedy that had encompassed Kym’s family when she was 16 which resulted in her parents’ divorce and her confinement to the rehab. Her mother pushes both her daughters away and her father tries hard to make Kym comfortable, make her feel accepted, but still falls short of her expectations. She wants someone to be there with her, for her but everyone misapprehends her. As a result she resolves to lying at times which acts as her defense mechanism at times; but in this hue and cry the real Kym gets lost. Need I say more about Hathaway’s performance? I think you’d better make up your own mind. She received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal as Kymberley . She is the reason why you should watch the movie in the first place. At 26, she has achieved that greatness which actors even at 45 find intricate to achieve. The movie is a triumph of ambience and Hathaway especially worked at a very high level. It goes deep into joy and pain of being human. The film’s greatest asset is the sense of cringing realism. Hathaway might have portrayed like a brat, screaming for attention, but we can’t help but feel for what she has been through. Her nervous laughter, edginess and quick temper with her need for attention and vulnerability is what keeps us hooked to the fag end.