Rachel Getting Married is a dose of Reality.

Watching the trailer of the Anne Hathaway's new film, I didn't expect it to take the direction it did. Rachel Getting Married is filled with a combination of humour, sadness, compassion and adulation.

The story is about a troubled young woman, Kim (played by Anne Hathaway) who travels home from a rehab centre to attend her sisters wedding. As the festivities of the weekend begin, the joy and laughter that should be laced into such a glorious occassion turns into anger and heartbreak. This, because of the family dynamics that creep through years of dysfunction and guilt, particularly from Kim, who accidentally killed their baby brother when she was a drug-strung teenager. I believe the intention of the filmmakers was to portray how weddings have a tendency to not go according to how they are planned, most of the times anyway. I appreciated the normalcy of the whole film, from the use of a hand-held camera (evident from the non-steady motion of the pictures), to the speeches at the wedding rehearsal (which many seemed to have been improvised).

I also appreciated the ability to lighten things up when the story got too heavy. For example, the dishwasher scene when the father and soon-to-be son-in-law were competing, although in the end it took things back to the serious matters that the family failed to really deal with head on. Another one of those light moments was the music which seemed to have a great influence in the film. What I was annoyed with though was the over-compensation of the music at the wedding reception, it lingered on until I just wanted for them to get back to the story. In defense of this music oversaturation, it could be because the director, Jonathan Demme, is a great fan of Neil Young (evidenced by a few songs featured including Sydney - the groom - singing a Neil Young song when his part of his vows came). Also, Tunde Adebimpe (who plays Sydney) is a part of a band called T.V. on the Radio.

Speaking of Tunde, I think he played his part very werll, although it was annoying how he didn't have much dialogue in the beginning when you expected him to say something. Anne did very well in her role too, veering away from her usual dolled-up roles in movies like Devil Wears Prada and Get Smart, to name just a couple. The rest of the cast did a sterling job too in bringing their different characters to complement the story. I noticed that Dorian Missick had a small part in Rachel Getting Married, leading me to believe that Demme enjoys working with him since he also appeared on another of his films, The Manchurian Candidate. Another highlight for me was seeing former American Idol contestant Tamyra Gray making a cameo and singing at the wedding rehearsal, she's such a talented singer. Speaking of singing, there was a bevy of different genres of music and related activities, bringing forth a spectacle of multiculturalism.

Rachel Getting Married is a great piece of work, real and authentic. You can actually relate to the story and what is presented on the screen, unlike some fantasy stories we have been sbjected to these days. Besides from lingering on, on certain scenes unneccessarily, the overall intention was achieved.

Rachel Getting Married will be released at Ster Kinekor cinemas nationwide on the 13th of March next year.