RACHEL GETTING MARRIED vs. MARGOT AT THE WEDDING

 

 

 

 

 

VS.

 

 

 

 

These two films are incredibly similar.  One (Rachael) is about a recovering drug addict, played wonderfully by Anne Hathaway, who returns home to participate in her sisters wedding.  The other (Margot) is about a writer, played adequately by Nicole Kidman, brings her son back to her childhood home in order to participate in her sisters wedding.

Here’s the thing.  Rachael Getting Married is good, bordering Great.  Margot at the Wedding is not.  In Rachael Getting Married, Jonathan Demme finds intimate moments of emotional truth mixed up in the dysfunctional family that both resembles and is completely different than everyone else’s.  What I mean is that The family has real problems that any one of us might face.  Their demons are put on display in a semi-voyeuristic way, and everyone in the film has this odd vulnerability hidden under layers of sarcasm, psycho babble, smiles, and food.  These are real people who deal with real problems in a completely realistic way.

In Margot the opposite is true.  The problems faced by Margot, her sister and her almost brother-in-law are fake.  They are attempting to show real problems in what I like to call a “smart people” way.  Margot is going through a divorce, but there doesn’t seem to be any problem with her marriage.  Her Sister is a free spirit living in a big house in Connecticut and has lots of money, but always seems broke.  And her brother-in-law grew a moustache ironically.  There is no realism, and Noah Baumbach seems to have a lot of parent issues and so his films seem to be his attempt to show how screwed up his family is.  (his previous work was The Squid and the Whale, which personally I found to be very overrated, but also deals with a pretentiously screwed up family.) 

And one last note about Anne Hathaway.  I read a review of Rachel Getting Married before I saw this film and the review said that Hathaway gives a performance with more depth than he thought she could have given.  I find this unfair.  Her performance is incredible for any actress.  It is something worth watching, and she deserves all of the accolades she received.  Though she did not win the Oscar for this performance, I am sure she will in the future for some other great work.  That is, so long as she doesn’t make another movie like Bride Wars…