MOVIES: Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme, 2008)

Easily one of the year's best movies, with Anne Hathaway leading a superb cast.

Hathaway plays Kym, who's been in and out of various rehab facilities for many months, and is being released from her current facility to go home for the wedding of her sister Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt). Kym is slowly gaining control of her demons -- she says at one point that she's been sober for nine months -- but it's clearly difficult for her not to be the center of attention.

That's not surprising, of course; she's used to being the focus of things, whether because of how her addiction affects her family or because she's got a team of therapists working on helping her get well. But on what should be Rachel's weekend, Kym's emotional neediness puts further strain on the family, which has not yet recovered from the worst results of Kym's addiction. (I'm trying to avoid giving away an important bit of the backstory here; suffice it to say that Kym's behavior was often tragically irresponsible.)

Kym and Rachel's father Paul (Bill Irwin, note-perfect in his ineffectual frustration) does his best to keep a lid on the simmering confrontation, but neither sister trusts him to be an impartial observer; they've been playing "Dad always liked you best" for years. Stepmom Carol (Anna Deavere Smith, looking strangely orange and bloated) hovers in the background, trying to be supportive to everyone, but we get the sense that Kym's been away for most of the time that Carol's been on the scene, and Carol doesn't have sufficient understanding of the family's dynamics to really be helpful.

You have to feel for Rachel's husband-to-be, Sidney (Tunde Adebimpe), and his family, who've arrived at Paul's Connecticut home for the rehearsal dinner and find it dominated by Rachel's family melodrama. The dinner sequence is a long one, and I can imagine that some people will find it too long and repetitious, with too many wedding toasts. But I think it's one of the best scenes in Jenny Lumet's script; the tension builds to an almost unbearable level as we wait for the inevitable moment when Kym gets the microphone and makes her toast, which is one of the great awkward, uncomfortable wedding toasts in movie history.

(Also of note in this scene is the precision of Lumet's writing for each character. The toast is the biggest speech some of these characters get, and Lumet paints each of them so crisply that we don't need much more to feel that we know them. Sidney's mother comes across in particularly vivid fashion.)

The performances here are amazing. Hathaway's done very good work in light comedy and period pieces, but she's never had a meaty dramatic role like this one, and she sinks her teeth into it. Her wedding toast is an unforgettable moment, as is her speech at a 12-step meeting, in which she confesses the worst sin of her time as a user. DeWitt's role isn't as flashy, but her performance is just as good; poor Rachel is being whiplashed from one emotional extreme to another -- the joy of a wedding, the anger of every encounter with Kym -- and DeWitt doesn't make a false step.

Debra Winger only has a few short scenes as Kym and Rachel's mother, Abby, but she makes it very clear how hard Abby is working to enjoy the wedding without being sucked into the family's toxic side. Adebimpe isn't given much to do as Sidney, but he's an immensely gracious presence; he's a calming influence on Rachel, and we have no problem understanding their connection.

The ads and trailers for the movie have, I think, made it look more like a wacky comedy than it really is; it's most definitely a drama, and a dark one at that. But it's refreshing to see a movie populated by real people that doesn't insist on wrapping everything up with a tidy bow at the end. This is a must-see.