rachel getting arried (spoilers)

[BuffyFanOne]

anyone seen this? we watched it at my house last night and tehre is ahuge debate about wrather it was good or "the worst movie i have seen in years".

Oh man. The more I think about the movie, the more I like it!

I think that each character was just that...a character. They were not supposed to be Rachel or Kimmy, rather they represented typical family members/roles. Everyone has a Kimmy in their family...a screw up who hogs the spotlight. Everyone has a Rachel, the goody goody that thinks they are better than everyone...

I could have done without the deer hunter wedding scene but looking back on it, I didn't even mind that. It was just one ore thing that made me feel like I was intruding into a private family event, not just the event of the wedding but the major family event of these people all coming together for the first time in a long while. It was almost like watching home movies.

The way I see it is that we were just looking in on these people's lives, there didn't need to be a back story or character exposition because none of that mattered.

my brother and my mom both hated it because they said they felt like they were watching people have intimate conversations with no beginning or ending but I think that was the point. We learned what we knew about each character by what we heard other characters saying about them. It made me feel like i was a part of the family.

Another thing I really liked was that the only things we learned about each character were what we learned from other characters conversations. There were no flashbacks or back story, and definitely no character exposition. We found out, as an audience, about the details of Kimmy past. Take the rehearsal scene for example. It was soooooo long and the speeches went on and on and on but i think that was done for a reason. The length of the scene, for me anyways, made me feel complacent and almost bored but it also made me feel like I was really there. It drew me in to the family and reminded me of every rehearsal I have ever been to. a bunch of strangers talking about people you know. It is very strange. You think you know everything about your sister and then her bride’s maid stands up and tells a story that you have never heard before…that is what it was so uncomfortable when Kimmy finally gets the microphone. It was almost painful because by that point, I felt like I was really there and she was speaking to me.

I felt so uneasy and uncomfortable when Kimmy was talking.
My favorite part, and what i took away as the theme of the movie, was when Kimmy was talking about the lies she told in rehab and she asks, if she is doomed to be unloved for the rest of her life because of the mistakes she made in her past? And she says that she can forgive herself but she can never forget what she did. I think she was talking about herself and not her family the whole time. She loves her family and they clearly love her and each other (even if they can't show it). but she does not love herself. She has to forgive herself before she can ever see the truth...that she is loved and forgiven by her family. That is why she was lying in rehab and that is why she chooses to go back at the end of the movie: To take it seriously and get better for good. I think that blow out with her mom and then seeing her mom be a douche at the wedding made Kimmy see that Rachel needs her as much as she needs Rachel.
So in conclusion...

I thought that it was a really beautiful and subtle character study. Was it the most exciting movie ever? Hell no! But I liked it for what it was. I thought it was a really great character study.

I am still a little lost about the father’s role though. Was he manic or what?!

[patxshand]

I've been meaning to see this. I heard great stuff and horrible stuff. This review is also leaving me a bit torn. Out of ten, what would you give it?

[stakey]

Havent read your review yet due to spoilers but I want to see this film SOOOOOO BAAADDDDDDDDD.

Its playing in my campus cinema this term and I got all happy and have only just realized it is habing a screening over the easter hols while Im back home! dammmitt!

but once I find a way to get my mitts on it ill come back and give your review a read through and make a comment that is actually productive.

[BuffyFanOne]

my brotehr gave it a 1/10 because he has the hots for anne hathaway.
i gave it a 6-7/10.
the film is far from perfect but the acting and theme/message (at least as i took it) make up for it imho.

don't get your hopes up if you are dying to see it i am afraid you will be very disapointed. if you go into it knowing what to expect, i am sure you will enjoy it more than you might if you have high expectations.

[slayersarah]

i watched this with my mom and we skipped a lot of it b/c we just found it too slow & boring. this movie is highly overrated IMO. like half of the movie could have been cut out and nothing pertaining to the actual story would've been missed. i liked it when the actual story was being told, but the millions of people toasting at the rehearsal and stuff like that should have definitely been edited. the movie had it's good moments, but not enough to waste money even renting it, i think.

[wenxina]

I just watched this tonight, and it's actually one of the better films I've watched recently. Nothing flashy, no special effects, no air-brushing. But the acting was remarkable, and I was very glad to see Anne Hathaway give such an honest performance. No overwrought emotional scenes for the sake of Oscar bait. Just very realistic, very raw.
I loved how intimate the entire film felt. As pointed out before, you feel like you're sitting in on the family event, witnessing it firsthand. The strained relationship between the sisters is so believable that I started reflecting on my relationship with my brother (we don't talk much).
Also loved how most, if not all the music was live, in that it was always the band playing in the next room or something like that.
If I had to give it a numerical grade out of 10, I'd go with 8.5. Beautifully scripted and acted, well-executed, it pushed the boundaries of my comfort zone. It definitely is slow at times, but I hardly felt the lag since the performances were so strong.