Rachel Getting Married: User Reviews

Didn't get it . . .
By hiddengem from hiddengem, October 13, 2008

Overall rating:

While I enjoy a good character study, I just didn’t get one with this film. The story was painfully redundant . . . Kym’s screwed up; Kym’s a narcissist; Kym can’t stand not being the center of attention, all the while with Hathaway only being half-convincing . . . she just never gripped me. Kym would’ve been a much richer character if we’d learned about more than the singular facet of her personality that was portrayed in the film. And, the releasing of the story similarly was unfulfilling. The film started off with intrigue, but the intrigue soon waned, quickly and significantly. The wedding rehearsal dinner scene, shortly into the film, had about 6 too many toasts (where, yet again – Kym was too indulged), just as the closing wedding scene had about 6 too many musical interludes, and just as the conflict between the former maid of honor (Emma) and Kym did. It was insulting to smart viewers – we got it the first time; there wasn’t a need for such overplay. All in all, I found that there were only a few strong emotional moments, the remaining attempts at which I was immune to by virtue of the overdose of repetitiveness. Next complaint – lack of focus . . . Rachel’s husband was almost anonymous in the film, which was an interesting angle to play, but the amount of time spent on the fringe members of his family conflicted with this perspective, and added nothing to the primary story line. The plot would’ve been better presented without the addition of his familial element, at all – in particular, I found that inclusion of his active military cousin pandered to current wartime sentiments, with the character adding nothing to the primary storyline. Similar complaint – there were too many sparsely introduced characters without development or significance, which again, detracted from this being a true character study (i.e., the best man, the rehab contact, Emma, Carole). The film would’ve presented better with fewer characters more thoroughly explored. Final complaint – the jerkiness of the handheld high-def digital video cameras made me so nauseous that, at times, I had to close my eyes. Wait for the rental, when you can fast-forward through the overly drawn-out scenes and uninspiring moments. Editing 20 minutes of this film probably would’ve given it 2 more stars in my book.