I’ve had a soft spot for Anne Hathaway ever since her good-natured, witty performance in the cheeky fairytale Ella Enchanted. She also provided strong support in Brokeback Mountain. But apart from that, her career thus far has been a bit, well, lite – characterised by the sort of low-calorie fluff that gives momentary sweetness but lacks any lasting nutritional value (The Princess Diaries 2, The Devil Wears Prada, Hoodwinked!, Get Smart).
So it’s good to see her stretching her talent a bit and going for a less saccharine role in Rachel Getting Married. Script-writer Jenny Lumet (daughter of the fabulous Sidney) ploughs the rich seam of drama inherent in family get-togethers, charting the progress of a daughter fresh out of rehab who returns to the family home for her sister Rachel’s wedding.
Director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia) seems to have favoured a roaming camera that swoops in and out of familiar household set-pieces, somewhat reminiscent of Thomas Vinterberg’s masterful Festen (also an acerbic exposé of deep familial fissures). The rugged camerawork lends a scratchy authenticity and promises to deflate any potentially sentimental moments with a sense of their realism, while at the same time mirroring the characters’ emotional turbulence.
