Sisterly Love?

the following post is a film review for Rachel Getting Married...


Kym is being released from rehab for a weekend so she can attend her sisters wedding but is this a wise move. Kym arrives home to find she is being pushed aside by her sister Rachael ad she is not overly keen to have her back for the wedding. Kym feels left out and under pressure as her father is keeping a constant eye on her.

The sister take turns to argue and try to get one over on the other with both wanting to be the centre of attention. Can Kym and Rachael put their differences aside for one day and enjoy the wedding or will Kym be better off back in rehab?

I have only given a very brief plot summery for this film as this is really all what happens throughout the film. There are a few other details which I have left out so they can be discovered if you decide to watch but over all I felt this film really was lacking in everything, especially a main story. I think if the wedding would have been a side story and we would have had another main one then it may have worked slightly better.

The acting was average in my eyes and I thinks o much more could have been done with the character had they been given the chance to develop more. The lead role of Kym was played by Anne Hathaway and for the majority of the film I got the feeling she was holding back, she did give us a few scenes where she gave her all and let out a lot of emotions but these were few and far between for my liking. She came across as very self centred at times and I did not like this side of her, we also got to see a very vulnerable part of her ad I felt she came across better when playing this side of her character as she seemed more at ease with her lines and feelings. She did have a good bond with on screen sister at times and it was good to see how tender they could be with each other despite all of the arguing. Rachel was played by Rosemarie Dewitt and she also came across as a very confused person. She seemed to always be competing with her sister for the attention of the parents and I felt this made her seem spoilt and jealous for the majority of the film, we did again get a few good scenes with her when being supportive to Kym but there was not enough of these scenes to justify a great performance.

We did have some decent support roles and some of them did actually come across well, I enjoyed the role of Kiernan and felt he was the most natural and true actor in the film. Sidney was also a good and decent role but we did not get enough on screen time with him to really get to know him well. Some of the actors in the film included, Mather Zickel, Tunde Adebimpe, Sebastian Stan and Roselyn Ruff.

The film was set in the present day so no real effort was needed for the costumes or sets. The costumes were all modern and current and looked good. The majority of the film was set in the family home as this was where the wedding was taking place and for me I would have liked to have seen a few other settings as it was verging on getting dull and boring. There were a few special effects in the film and they were in keeping with the theme and tone of the story.

I did have a few issues with the camera work during the film, there were a lot of shakes scenes and this is where I thought the film seemed more of a documentary rather than a film and I was struggling to work out which they were trying to come across as. The shaky camera work was very poor and as this was at the start of the film it did help to give me a negative opinion of the film from a very early stage. The music was also a very big let down, there were no stand out tracks and the few songs we did have were limited and boring. I do need to point out that there is a very annoying violin playing character in the film and there was a lot of times when I would shout at the screen and tell him to stop playing as it always sounded the same.

This is a film only review so there are no bonus features to speak about. The running time of this film is 113 minutes and I felt this was very long and the limited story was drawn out to much. The rate is a 15 and I do agree with this as there is some bad language and the drug theme is quite pronounced throughout. There is also some small sexual scenes as well. The DVD can be bought for under £5 now but personally I would advise against wasting money on this film.

I would like to be able to give this film a higher rate but I cannot. I have had to give it two stars. there was a distinct lack of story and good acting and for me it could have been made so much better and stronger if the main story was sidelined and we had more about the whole family and not just the wedding. The run time was too long and I was loosing interest and getting very bored with the film. If you are still tempted to watch then wait for this to be shown on the TV instead of paying for the DVD.