Rachel Getting Married

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Rachel Getting Married

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Plot

Lingering tensions clash with new hopes in director Jonathan Demme's ensemble drama set during an idyllic wedding that threatens to descend into chaos with the appearance of the bride's estranged sister -- a volatile and unpredictable girl whose turbulent history of personal crisis and family conflict quickly threatens to take precedence over the happy ceremony. Rachel Buchman (Rosemarie DeWitt) is about to be married to the love of her life, but while the weather outside may be perfect, there's a storm blowing in. That storm goes by the name Kym (Anne Hathaway). Kym is the family black sheep, and wherever she goes disaster is sure to follow. Now, as friends and family gather together for a memorable day of dining, dancing, and celebration, everyone braces themselves knowing that, at any given moment, old skeletons may be dragged out and dusted off for display by the bombshell who seems to have an acerbic one-liner for every situation, and a flare for drama that could set their family home ablaze. Bill Irwin and Debra Winger co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Review

Rachel Getting Married reminds audiences what Jonathan Demme does best, but also suffers from the same faults that have mucked up his recent work. The film opens with Kym's (Anne Hathaway) father (Bill Irwin) and stepmother picking her up from rehab so that Kym can go home for her sister Rachel's (Rosemarie DeWitt) nuptials. The family house overflows with musicians, artists, and friends who are busy preparing for the big event; someone in the house is playing music almost all of the time. Within minutes of her arrival, the dysfunctional relationships within the family fall into a familiar rut with Rachel yelling at Kym for her selfishness, Kym demanding sympathy from everyone, and their ineffectual dad trying to keep the peace.

Hathaway and DeWitt are superb together. There is no doubt of their genuine love for -- and absolute exasperation with -- each other. Your sympathies shift between the two during the opening scenes, and this is one of Demme's great strengths -- he never judges Kym for her addictions, and never questions Rachel's frustration and anger. The actresses each deliver finely detailed performances, particularly in the scenes where their recriminations fall away to reveal the genuine affection flowing underneath all the resentments.

Had Demme focused on this human drama he might have created a minor-key masterpiece, but instead he indulges in sequences featuring all the other people who are part of the wedding. Understand, these scenes don't actually introduce us to all these people -- we don't get to know them at all -- they are just simple moments that don't add up to anything. For example, a series of toasts during the rehearsal dinner starts charmingly before devolving into speech after speech from characters you've barely seen before and might not see again; eventually, you feel as bored as you would be at a social function where you don't know a single person. Demme's humanism used to be effortless, but here it leads to deadening collections of scenes that serve no dramatic purpose. Demme wants us to observe the diversity, but he makes us look at it for so long that you start to question why he's making us stare at it instead of trusting us to accept that this is how this world is. He presents cultural diversity with a dispassion that's meant to illustrate how ordinary this idealized picture of togetherness should be, but observing a microcosm of a social utopia isn't as interesting as being part of one. By failing to return regularly to his engaging main story, Demme neuters the power of his own subtext.

From his early days with Roger Corman, Demme possessed both a gargantuan humanism and a light touch. Few filmmakers could put characters as odd as those that populate Melvin and Howard, Citizens Band, and Something Wild onscreen without an ounce of judgment or condescension. In Hannibal Lecter, Demme finally found a character that matched his own ability to observe human behavior. This sympathetic connection helped make The Silence of the Lambs a classic, but it seems to have exhausted Demme creatively. In Philadelphia and Beloved, he ceased looking at people for the sheer joy of understanding them, and began to look at them out of some sense that his audience would become better people for having done so. That kind of moral ambition rarely leads to quality filmmaking. Rachel Getting Married does offer a glimpse of the simple humanitarianism Demme used to handle with aplomb, but once again, it's compromised by mild self-righteousness. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Cast

Mather Zickel - Kieran; Anna Deavere Smith - Carol; Anisa George - Emma; Jerome LePage - Andrew; Victoria Haynes - Bridesmaid; Beau Sia - Wedding Czar; Sister Carol East - Wedding Band Performer; Robyn Hitchcock - Wedding Band Performer; Darrell Larson - 12-Step Group Leader; Carol Jean Lewis - Sidney's Mom; Roger Corman - Party Guest with Movie Camera; Fab Five Freddy - Wedding Performer; Sebastian Stan - Walter, bowtie party guest; Michele Federer - 12-Step Reader; Zafer Tawil - Violin Friend; Tamyra Gray - Singing Friend; Elizabeth Hayes - Susanna Galeano; Innbo Shim - Wedding Planner; Roslyn Ruff - Rosa; Annaleigh Ashford - Quick Stop Cashier; Quincy Tyler Bernstine - 12-Step Receptionist; Matthew Stadelmann - 12-Step First-Timer; Pastor Melvin Jones - 12-Step Speaker; Kyrah Julian - Sidney's Sister

Credit

Kim Jennings - Art Director, Elizabeth Hayes - Associate Producer, Innbo Shim - Associate Producer, Emily Woodburne - Associate Producer, Bernie Telsey - Casting, H.H. Cooper - Co-producer, Susan Lyall - Costume Designer, H.H. Cooper - First Assistant Director, Jonathan Demme - Director, Tim Squyres - Editor, Ilona Herzberg - Executive Producer, Carol Cuddy - Executive Producer, Zafer Tawil - Composer (Music Score), Donald Harrison Jr. - Composer (Music Score), Innbo Shim - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ford Wheeler - Production Designer, Declan Quinn - Cinematographer, Jonathan Demme - Producer, Marc E. Platt - Producer, Neda Armian - Producer, Jenny Lumet - Screenwriter, Suzana Peric - Music Editor, Kendall McCarthy - Post Production Supervisor, Jeff Pullman - Production Sound Mixer

Previous:Rachel Brice: Serpentine Belly Dance (2010 Film), Rachel Brice: Bellydance Arms and Posture (2007 Film)
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Rachel Getting Married

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Rachel Getting Married

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Jonathan Demme
Produced by Jonathan Demme
Neda Armian
Marc E. Platt
Written by Jenny Lumet
Starring Anne Hathaway
Rosemarie DeWitt
Bill Irwin
Anna Deavere Smith
Tunde Adebimpe
Debra Winger
Music by Donald Harrison Jr.
Zafer Tawil
Cinematography Declan Quinn
Editing by Tim Squyres
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
Release date(s) October 3, 2008 (2008-10-03)
Running time 114 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $16,020,184[1]

Rachel Getting Married is a 2008 drama film directed by Jonathan Demme, and starring Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin and Debra Winger. The film was released in the U.S. to select theaters on October 3, 2008. The film opened the 65th Venice International Film Festival. The film also opened in Canada's Toronto Film Festival on September 6, 2008. Hathaway was nominated for Academy Award for Best Actress for her role, but lost to Kate Winslet in The Reader.

Contents

Plot

Kym (Hathaway) is released from rehab for a few days so she can go home to attend the wedding of her sister Rachel (DeWitt). At home, the atmosphere is strained between Kym and her family members as they struggle to reconcile themselves with her past and present. Kym's father shows intense concern for her well-being and whereabouts, which Kym interprets as mistrust. She also resents her sister's choice of her best friend Emma (Anisa George), rather than Kym, to be her maid of honor. Rachel, for her part, resents the attention her sister's drug addiction is drawing away from her wedding, a resentment that comes to a head at the rehearsal dinner, where Kym, amid toasts from friends and family, takes the microphone to offer an apology for her past actions, as part of her twelve-step program.

Underlying the family's dynamic is a tragedy that occurred many years previously, which Kym retells at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. As a teenager, Kym was responsible for the death of her young brother Ethan, who was left in her care one day; driving home from a nearby park, an intoxicated Kym had lost control of the car, driving over a bridge and into a lake, where her brother drowned.

The day before the wedding, as Rachel, Kym, and the other bridesmaids are getting their hair done, Kym is approached by a man whom she knew from an earlier stint in rehab. He thanks her for the strength she gave him through a story about having been molested by an uncle and having cared for her sister, who was anorexic. Rachel, hearing this, storms out. The story, it turns out, was all a lie — an apparent attempt by Kym to evade responsibility for her addiction.

The sisters' fight comes to a head later that night at their father's house, when Kym comes home. As it turns out, Rachel still blames her for Ethan's death, despite their father's attempt to calm them down. This causes Kym to leave, after eventually admitting to being high while she was a teen. She heads to their mother's house, hoping to find solace with her after a fight with Rachel. However, a fight breaks out between them when Kym learns the truth about her mother also being responsible for Ethan's death. She confronts Abby and demands to know why she left him in her care while she was under the influence instead of leaving him with Rachel. Kym soon realizes that Abby is denying any responsibility she has for his death. She tells her that she was good to Ethan and that Rachel is wrong in accusing her for his death. Once Kym tells her mother that she was also responsible for Ethan's death, Abby is furious and slaps Kym in the face. Furious, Kym hits Abby back and runs off again in her father's car. While driving away, Kym is seen crying because, while she started to accept responsibility for what she has done under the influence, her mother has failed to do the same. This time, Kym intentionally crashes her father's car into a giant rock, and spends the night in the wreck.

The next morning, the day of the wedding, Kym is awoken by police. After passing a sobriety test, she gets a ride home. She makes her way to Rachel's room, as Rachel prepares for the wedding. Seeing Kym's bruised face from a fight she had with their mother prompts her anger of the previous night to vanish, and Rachel tenderly bathes and dresses her sister.

Amid a festive Indian theme, Rachel and her fiancé are wed. Kym is the maid of honor, and is overcome with emotion as the couple exchanges their vows. Kym tries to enjoy herself throughout the wedding reception but continues to feel out of place and is nagged by the unresolved dispute with her mother. Ultimately, her mother leaves the party early, despite Rachel's effort to bring the two together, and the gulf between Kym and Abby is left unreconciled.

The next morning, Kym must return to rehab. As she is leaving, Rachel runs out of the house to hug her.

Production

The screenplay was written by Jenny Lumet, the daughter of director Sidney Lumet and granddaughter of Lena Horne.[citation needed] Lumet, a junior high school drama teacher,[citation needed] has written four earlier screenplays,[citation needed] but this was the first to be produced.[citation needed] The film is directed by Jonathan Demme, and was shot in Stamford, Connecticut in a naturalistic style. The working title for the film was originally Dancing with Shiva.[citation needed]

Lumet himself approached Demme about his daughter Jenny's script. Demme has commented that he loved Jenny's flagrant disregard for the rules of formula, her lack of concern for making her characters likable in the conventional sense, and for what he considered to be her bold approach to truth, pain, and humor.[2]

Filming took 33 days and occurred in late 2007.[3]

Cast

Actor/Actress Role Description
Anne Hathaway Kym Rachel's sister, who's been in and out of rehab
Rosemarie DeWitt Rachel Kym's sister, who's to be married
Bill Irwin Paul Kym and Rachel's father
Debra Winger Abby Kym and Rachel's estranged mother, denied responsibility Kym had for Ethan's death which lead to the climax of the film.
Tunde Adebimpe Sidney Rachel's soon-to-be husband
Mather Zickel Kieran Kym's love interest, who has also been in rehab but is now clean; also the best man and Sidney's best friend
Anna Deavere Smith Carol Paul's second wife
Anisa George Emma Rachel's best friend
Victoria Haynes Victoria Bridesmaid
Jerome LePage Andrew Abby's second husband
Carol-Jean Lewis Sidney's Mother
Fab 5 Freddy Himself Cameo appearance
Robyn Hitchcock Wedding Guest/Performer
Sister Carol East Wedding Guest
Beau Sia Wedding Czar
Andre Blake Inspired Stylist one of Kym's former rehab friends
Roger Corman Wedding Guest Cameo appearance
Tamyra Gray Singing Friend
Kyrah Julian Sidney's Sister
Roslyn Ruff Rosa Kym's rehab attendant
Sebastian Stan Walter Kym's rehab friend

Casting

Demme had wanted to work with Anne Hathaway ever since he spotted her in a crowd at a screening five years earlier. He immediately took her in consideration for the lead role.[2] Hathaway later said of her first reading Lumet's script: "I was in my old apartment in the West Village Manhattan, just pacing back and forth between the kitchen table and the couch. I somehow wound up on the floor sobbing by the last page."[3]

Rosemarie DeWitt was considered by the film's casting directors. Demme and the rest of the crew were impressed and immediately wanted her to play Rachel. Bill Irwin is a personal friend of Demme's.

Tunde Adebimpe's role, Sidney, was originally offered to American film director Paul Thomas Anderson while he was working on the post-production of the movie There Will Be Blood.[4]

Demme was concerned about Debra Winger's interest in doing the film, but he pumped up his courage to ask her because they had met several times before at the Jacob Burns Center, a film center close to their homes. Winger later accepted the role of Abby.[2]

Reception

Critical response

The film received critical acclaim and appeared on many "Best Film of 2008" lists. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune called the film "a triumph of ambience," and that Hathaway, DeWitt, Irwin and especially Winger are working at a very high level.[5] Roger Ebert's four-star rating added, "apart from the story, which is interesting enough, 'Rachel Getting Married' is like the theme music for an evolving new age."[6] Other critics praised Jonathan Demme. Andrew Sarris noted in the New York Observer "his career of cinematic good works"[7] and Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly observed "a fight scene that's as raw as Ingmar Bergman and as operatic as Mildred Pierce" . . . and "Demme's finest work since The Silence of the Lambs.[8]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone noted that Rachel Getting Married is "a home run . . . [it goes] deep into the joy and pain of being human."[9] A.O. Scott of The New York Times said that the film "has an undeniable and authentic vitality, an exuberance of spirit, that feels welcome and rare".[10]

Many reviewers praised the film for its organic feel; Salon reviewer Stephanie Zacharek noted that "with 'Rachel Getting Married,' Demme has once again scaled back, making a picture that has some of the ease and warmth of his earlier movies, although it also feels stripped down and direct in a way that's new for Demme."[11] USA Today proclaimed: "After a foray in documentary films, director Jonathan Demme has returned to narrative storytelling, assuming a decidedly cinéma vérité style that has echoes of Robert Altman. The film's greatest asset is the sense of cringing realism in portraying dinner parties and interpersonal encounters that can throw family members off-kilter."[12] The Los Angeles Times noted:

Helping give this story its essential air of reality is the decision Demme and cinematographer Quinn made to shoot it as what they call "the most beautiful home movie ever made." The director chose not to plan shots in advance, instead giving Quinn (whose credits include Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding") the ability to respond in the moment to what was going on with the actors, and it's a tribute to his ability (and that of editor Tim Squyres) that his camera always seems to be in the right place at the right time.[13]

Anne Hathaway won raves for her work as Kym. USA Today found her wonderful in the role and wrote "Her nervous laughter, edginess and quick temper blend convincingly with her need for attention and vulnerability."[12] Newsweek commented: "Kym is a major pain in the ass, and Hathaway's raw, spiky performance makes no attempt to ingratiate. Yet she makes Kym's inner torment so palpable you can't help but feel for her, however insufferable she may be. It's a terrific performance . . . ".[14] Empire felt that "Kym is a peach of a role — she sleeps with the best man, fights with the maid of honor, quips, 'You're so thin, it's like you're Asian' — and Hathaway squeezes it for all the juice it's worth, making this raw-nerved, narcissistic Tasmanian Devil not just believable, but somehow likable." [15]

As of February 13, 2011 (2011 -02-13), the film holds an overall 86 percent rating at Rotten Tomatoes[16]

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.[17]

Music

The music-loving director Demme invited musicians to compose the score live on set, to support the film's storyline.[citation needed]

"For the longest time," Demme has said, "I've had this desire to provide the musical dimension of a movie without traditionally scored music. I thought: wait a minute; in the script, Paul [father of the bride] is a music-industry bigwig, Sidney's a record producer, many of his friends will be gifted musicians, so of course there would be non-stop music at this gathering. We have music playing live throughout the weekend, but always in the next room, out on the porch or in the garden."[citation needed]

Throughout the unconventional filming and loosely staged scenes, a New York-based Middle Eastern ensemble, including the Palestinian musician Zafer Tawil, and Iraqi Amir ElSaffar, who played the score of Demme's documentary Man from Plains, compose the score on set. Always present at the filming, the musicians had the freedom – and were encouraged – to play whenever they were inspired to, and to ignore the camera.

According to Demme on the DVD, during filming of a dramatic scene, Hathaway complained about the music interfering with the mood, to which Demme responded "Tell her to do something about it!" Hathaway, in that scene, responded by improvising the line, "Can you tell them to knock it off?!" to which another actor not heavily involved in the scene went off-screen and told the band to stop.

Well-known acting faces mingle anonymously on-screen with musicians, artists, dancers and acting-novice friends of the director. Among them are the New Orleanian saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr., and the Brooklyn-based TV On The Radio's lead singer Tunde Adebimpe.

Singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock plays a wedding guest. At the ceremony Hitchcock, at the request of his old friend Demme, performs the song "America" from his 1982 album Groovy Decay. He also plays "Up To Our Nex", written for the movie. "It's my micro-encapsulation of the movie. The song is trying to be a voice in Kym's head . . . " Filmed in one take at the wedding party, he is spontaneously joined by the hip-hop star Fab 5 Freddy, and the dancehall singers Sister Carol, ElSaffar and Tawil.

Hitchcock recalled,

My memory of the whole thing is of being at a real wedding, although without the alcohol. A lot was shot in real time and the end result was the whole thing seemed as if it really had happened. It's as real as it gets. By the time I did 'Up To Our Nex' in the tent I had 15 people. Amir did a horn arrangement and Demme's son Brooklyn Demme was on electric guitar. We hadn't all played together before. The line between reality and fiction – it was a door you could walk in and out of as much as you liked. The idea that they are just playing live, that's the beauty of it. The thing I really liked about the music in the movie is that it all happens in real time. The moments of real tension in the film are not signposted by the score. It's not telling you how you're going to react when the music comes. The music is very organic, not manipulative.

For Demme, it was about creating evocative music in the moment.[24]

Awards and nominations

Awards
Award Category Name Results
Academy Awards Best Actress Anne Hathaway Nominated
Austin Film Critics Association[25] Best Actress Anne Hathaway Won
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards Best Actress Anne Hathaway Won
Best Cast Acting Ensemble Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards Best Actress Anne Hathaway Won
Best Supporting Actor Bill Irwin Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Rosemarie DeWitt Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Jenny Lumet Nominated
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards Best Actress Anne Hathaway Won
Detroit Film Critics Society Best Actress Anne Hathaway Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Rosemarie DeWitt Nominated
Best Ensemble Nominated
Best Newcomer Rosemarie DeWitt Nominated
EDA Annual Achievement Awards Best Ensemble Cast Won
Best Woman Screenwriter Jenny Lumet Won
Golden Globe Awards Best Actress - Drama Anne Hathaway Nominated
Gotham Awards Breakthrough Actor Rosemarie DeWitt Nominated
Best Ensemble Cast Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin
Tunde Adebimpe, Anna Deavere Smith
Anisa George, Debra Winger
Nominated
Houston Film Critics Society Best Actress Anne Hathaway Won
Independent Spirit Awards Best Film Nominated
Best Director Jonathan Demme Nominated
Best First Screenplay Jenny Lumet Nominated
Best Lead Female Anne Hathaway Nominated
Best Supporting Female Rosemarie DeWitt Nominated
Best Supporting Female Debra Winger Nominated
National Board of Review Awards Best Actress Anne Hathaway Won
New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Screenplay Jenny Lumet Won
Palm Springs International Film Festival Desert Palms Achievement Award for Best Actress Anne Hathaway Won
Satellite Awards Best Supporting Actress Rosemarie DeWitt Won
Best Actress - Drama Anne Hathaway Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Anne Hathaway Nominated
Southeastern Film Critics Association Best Actress Anne Hathaway Won
St. Louis Film Critics Association[26] Best Actress Anne Hathaway Nominated
Utah Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress Rosemarie DeWitt Won
Best Screenplay Jenny Lumet Won
Venice Film Festival Golden Lion Nominated
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress Rosemarie DeWitt Won
Best Screenplay Jenny Lumet Won

References

  1. ^ "Rachel Getting Married (2008)". Box Office Mojo. 2009-04-23. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=rachelgettingmarried.htm. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 
  2. ^ a b c "Rachel Getting Married". Sonyclassics.com. http://www.sonyclassics.com/rachelgettingmarried/main.html. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 
  3. ^ a b Naomi West (2009-01-09). "Anne Hathaway: Oscar contender who is the real deal". The Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/4125213/Anne-Hathaway-Oscar-contender-who-is-the-real-deal.html. Retrieved 2009-01-11. 
  4. ^ "Spout". Blog.spout.com. http://blog.spout.com/2008/09/17/jonathan-demme-interview-rachel-getting-married-toronto-2008/. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 
  5. ^ Phillips, Michael (2008-10-09). "Movie review: 'Rachel Getting Married'". Metromix Chicago. http://chicago.metromix.com/movies/movie_review/movie-review-rachel-getting/664638/content. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 
  6. ^ Roger Ebert (October 8, 2008). "Rachel Getting Married". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081008/REVIEWS/810089989. Retrieved 2011-02-13. "And so on. Apart from the story, which is interesting enough, 'Rachel Getting Married' is like the theme music for an evolving new age." 
  7. ^ Andrew Sarris (2008-10-07). "Wonderful Winger". The New York Observer. http://www.observer.com/2008/arts-culture/wonderful-winger. Retrieved 2011-02-13. "I hope nonetheless that Rachel Getting Married is enough of a hit to sustain his career of cinematic good works." 
  8. ^ Owen Gleiberman (October 3, 2008). "Rachel Getting Married". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20230125,00.html. Retrieved 2011-02-13. "After a while, Debra Winger shows up as the sisters' quasi-estranged mother, and she and Hathaway have a fight scene that's as raw as Ingmar Bergman and as operatic as Mildred Pierce.
    This melting-pot wedding creates a frisson of its own; it's a vision of a new world. I do wish that Demme hadn't let the wedding music, by Robyn Hitchcock, Sister Carol East, and a few others, take over the last act. This much healing-by-'80s-hipster-taste is too much. But Rachel Getting Married is still a triumph — Demme's finest work since The Silence of the Lambs, and a movie that tingles with life."
     
  9. ^ Travers, Peter (October 2, 2008). "Rachel Getting Married". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/rachel-getting-married-20081002. Retrieved March 10, 2011. 
  10. ^ A.O. Scott (October 2, 2008). "Out of Rehab, Wreaking Havoc". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/movies/03rach.html. Retrieved 2011-02-13. "It's a small movie, and in some ways a very sad one, but it has an undeniable and authentic vitality, an exuberance of spirit, that feels welcome and rare." 
  11. ^ Zacharek, Stephanie (October 3, 2008). "Rachel Getting Married". Salon. http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/review/2008/10/03/rachel/. Retrieved February 13, 2011. 
  12. ^ a b Puig, Claudia (2008-10-03). "It's Rachel's wedding, but it's Hathaway's show". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2008-10-02-rachel-getting-married_N.htm. Retrieved 2010-05-22. "After a foray in documentary films, director Jonathan Demme has returned to narrative storytelling, assuming a decidedly cinéma vérité style that has echoes of Robert Altman.
    The film's greatest asset is the sense of cringing realism in portraying dinner parties and interpersonal encounters that can throw family members off-kilter."
     
  13. ^ Turan, Kenneth (2008-10-03). "Review: 'Rachel Getting Married'". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-rachel3-2008oct03,0,7893127.story. Retrieved 2010-05-22. "Helping give this story its essential air of reality is the decision Demme and cinematographer Quinn made to shoot it as what they call "the most beautiful home movie ever made." The director chose not to plan shots in advance, instead giving Quinn (whose credits include Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding") the ability to respond in the moment to what was going on with the actors, and it's a tribute to his ability (and that of editor Tim Squyres) that his camera always seems to be in the right place at the right time." 
  14. ^ "The Wedding Guest From Hell". Newsweek. 2008-10-01. http://www.newsweek.com/id/162032. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 
  15. ^ Nick de Semlyen. "Rachel Getting Married". Empire. http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=135766. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 
  16. ^ "Rachel Getting Married". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rachel_getting_married/. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w "2008 Critics' Picks". Metacritic. http://apps.metacritic.com/film/awards/2008/toptens.shtml. Retrieved January 11, 2009. 
  18. ^ Ryan Adams (2008-12-08). "David Edelstein's Top 10". Awards Daily. http://www.awardsdaily.com/2008/12/david-edelsteins-top-10/. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 
  19. ^ New, The (December 5, 2008). "David Denby: The Ten Best Films of 2008". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/tny/2008/12/david-denbys-ten-best-movies-o.html. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 
  20. ^ Kenneth Turan (2008-12-21). "Top 'Dog,' and the best of shows". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-turan21-2008dec21,0,7457312.story. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 
  21. ^ "Kyle Smith: Top Movies". New York Post. 2008-12-07. http://www.nypost.com/seven/12072008/entertainment/movies/kyle_smith__top_movies_143100.htm. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 
  22. ^ Wrap, Entertainment (December 10, 2008). "Pete Travers Top Ten". Awards Daily. http://www.awardsdaily.com/?p=4761. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 
  23. ^ Roger Ebert (December 5, 2008). "The best films of 2008... and there were a lot of them". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081205/COMMENTARY/812059997/1023. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 
  24. ^ Bray, Elisa. Rachel Getting Married - Lights, camera, music...". The Independent. 16 January 2009.
  25. ^ "Chronolog". The Austin Chronicle. http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Blogs?oid=oid%3A716158. Retrieved 2011-02-13. [dead link]
  26. ^ "St. Louis Film Critics Association Announces Award Nominees". Toastedrav.com. http://toastedrav.com/post/5325_st_louis_film_critics_association_announces_award_nominees. Retrieved 2011-02-13. 

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Mentioned in

Jonathan Demme (Hollywood director)
Mather Zickel (Actor, Comedy/Drama)
Rachel Getting Married [Soundtrack] (2008 Album by Original Soundtrack)
Bill Irwin (Actor, Children's/Family/Drama)
Tunde Adebimpe (Actor, Drama/Comedy Drama)