It's Rachel's wedding, but Kym (a former model) is a black hole who draws all attention and energy to herself, infuriating her sister.
Movies like "Married" (recently, "Margot at the Wedding") typically save the cathartic good-sis/bad-sis confrontation for the third act, but this movie has an unusual structure, and hits us with the Rachel/Kym smackdown early and often.
It's a bit wearying - they're like musicians hitting a crescendo and holding it forever. And it's hard not to put "Rachel Getting Married" in the context of music, since the movie is drenched in it. Rachel's marrying a musician (Tunde Adebimpe), and his friends have gathered to saw their violins and plunk their exotic string instruments - every single scene is soaked in their ambient noise.
It's part of the multi-cultural tapestry that Jonathan Demme weaves here, and it may win your heart, or it may leave you feeling a bit like John Blutarsky in "Animal House," ready to put your foot through the nearest dobro. I'm afraid I'm with Bluto.
Demme takes his narrative cues from music, giving his movie (written by Jenny Lumet) a jazz structure. There is no conventional narrative, as he bounces from room-to-room, character-to character, plot-to-plot with improvisational glee.
Along the way, we slowly gather insights into the characters - the fraught relationship between Kym and her father (Bill Irwin), and, especially, Kym and her mother (Debra Winger, who's retained a thing or two about withholding moms from "Terms of Endearment").
The strategy is shrewd. The movie's lack of formality undercuts our expectation of a big Rachel/Kym dramatic axis, and casually tips us to the fact the the real drama, lies elsewhere. The way it casually tosses off its Big Reveal is inventive, and interesting, and the movie's best idea.
Other ideas, not so good. Demme's verite tactics, also meant to complement the feel of improvisation, do just the opposite. Every wobbly camera move and abrupt focus change is meant to suggest something authentic, but hasn't that been a pretty tired visual idea? It ends up feeling like a stylistic calculation. *
Produced by Jonathan Demme, Neda Armian and Marc Platt, directed by Jonathan Demme, written by Jenny Lumet, music by Zafir Tawil, distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.
