Rachel Getting Married (2008)

A young woman who has been in and out of rehab for the past ten years, returns home for the weekend for her sister's wedding.

Director:

Jonathan Demme

Writer:

Jenny Lumet

Stars:

Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Debra Winger

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 32 wins & 63 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sebastian Stan	...	Walter / Bowtie Party Guest
Roslyn Ruff	...	Rosa
Anne Hathaway	...	Kym
Bill Irwin	...	Paul
Anna Deavere Smith	...	Carol
Annaleigh Ashford	...	Quick Stop Cashier
Zafer Tawil	...	Violin Friend
Beau Sia	...	Wedding Czar
Innbo Shim	...	Wedding Planner
Eliza Simpson	...	Wedding P.A.
Olive	...	The Poodle
Rosemarie DeWitt	...	Rachel
Anisa George	...	Emma
Tamyra Gray	...	Singing Friend
Victoria Haynes	...	Bridesmaid

Storyline

Kym Buchman has been in drug rehab for nine months, during which time she has been clean. She is released temporarily from the facility to attend her sister Rachel Buchman's wedding. During her release, Kym is staying at the family home, where the wedding is taking place. As such, it is like Grand Central Station for the duration of Kym's stay, which may not be the most conducive situation for her in constantly being exposed to the watching eyes of those who know and don't yet know her, but know of her situation. The reunion with her family members starts off well enough, but issues around Kym's release from rehab quickly surface. Kym and Rachel's father, Paul Buchman, wants to make sure that Kym is all right at all times, which to Kym feels instead like he doesn't trust her. Rachel slowly begins to resent Kym's situation taking over what is supposed to be the happiest day of her life, some of which is directed by Kym, some of which isn't. One person present but largely not included ...

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Plot Keywords:

divorce | panties | bra | sitting on a toilet | sex standing up | 

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Taglines:

A story about all the drama.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and brief sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [France]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 November 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dancing with Shiva

Filming Locations:

Fairfield, Connecticut, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$293,369, 5 October 2008, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$12,796,277, 19 April 2009

Company Credits

Production Co:

Armian Pictures, Clinica Estetico, Marc Platt Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Both Anne Hathaway and Sebastian Stan played comic book characters in separate movies. Anne Hathaway portrayed Catwoman/Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Sebastian Stan portrays Winter Solider/James "Bucky" Barnes in Captain America The First Avenger (2011), Captain America The Winter Solider (2014), Captain America: Civil War (2016), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018).

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Goofs

When Kym returns from the rehearsal dinner the piece of watermelon she eats has a bite taken out of it that disappears and re-appears during the scene. The thickness of the slice also varies.

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Quotes

[Kym speaks at a twelve-step meeting]
Kym: When I was sixteen, I was babysitting my little brother. And I was, um... I had taken all these Percocet. And I was unbelievably high and I... we had driven over to the park on Lakeshore. And he was in his red socks just running around in these piles of leaves. And, um, he would bury me and I would bury him in the leaves. And he was pretending that he was a train. And so he was charging through the leaves, making tracks, and I was the caboose, and I was, um....

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Connections

Referenced in The 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards (2009)

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Soundtracks

It's Been Done
Written by Per Sunding, Nathan Larson, and Angela McCluskey
Performed by Angela McCluskey
Courtesy of Manhattan Records
Under license from EMI Film & Television Music

User Reviews

An old curmudgeon's view

Maybe this is a generational thing but I wholeheartedly agree with those who have said, "Excellent film sabotaged by execrable camera work," "Teenagers Making Video," and "Rachel Gets Married, Audience Gets Headache." When I was an engineer and again as a programmer, we had a saying, "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you have to do it." Last week I saw W. and had the same comment about it. The hand held, shaky, up your actor's nose close-ups all distract from what could be an interesting story. How I miss the carefully plotted camera work of people like Gregg Toland (The Grapes of Wrath and Citizen Kane), James Wong Howe (too many to mention), and Freddie Young (Lawrence of Arabia). As Dennis Miller says, "of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong."

I also feel that many of the scenes, particularly the wedding party, went on way, way too long. If I had wanted to watch my friend's long, boring, amateur wedding video, I could have stayed home and saved the price of admission.