DRAMA; 1hr 53min
STARRING: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt
Wedding belles: from left, Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt
Forget preconceptions about Anne Hathaway’s baked-in sweetness. As rehab regular Kym, home in Connecticut for the wedding of her sister Rachel (DeWitt), she is a bruised spitfire addict with a choppy bob, a choppier track record and an alarming wellspring of confrontational energy. The serrated square peg at the happy lead-in celebrations, Kym is never going to be comfortable: comfort is a condition that has long eluded her and in her ruthless search for resolution, she devours the atmosphere.
Under Philadelphia director Jonathan Demme’s auspices (working loosey goosey–style from a screenplay by film-maker Sidney Lumet’s daughter Jenny), cinematography Declan Quinn manipulates his hand-held camera to maximum effect, zeroing in on a panoply of moods as the family members swing from merriment to disarray. Everyone is wonderful — Bill Irwin as Kym’s embattled dad, Debra Winger as his reserved ex-wife and Tunde Adebimpe as Rachel’s sympathetic fiancé, along with assorted rellies and friends, coalesce like the real thing with their losses, regrets and bottom line of love. But Hathaway’s courage is the true revelation.
