Rachel Getting Married 2008

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: Rosemary Dewitt is fantastic. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Hathaway, DeWitt, Irwin and especially Winger are working at a very high level. So is their director. His intuition regarding how to film this particular milestone event, and the stories unfolding in the margins, turned out to be just right. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: I've never seen a movie with this mixture of fullness and desolation. Rachel Getting Married is a masterpiece. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Alternately funny and gripping, this feature marks a welcome return to original drama for director Jonathan Demme, who's spent the last decade preoccupied with documentaries, concert movies, and remakes. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The script was written by Jenny Lumet in a loose, graceful style that allows the story to flow -- or sometimes ramble -- freely, and gives the actors all the room they need to invent and discover as they go along. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: This emotionally wrenching drama is an actors' showcase, a primer on quick-and-dirty filmmaking that nonetheless looks beautiful, and a welcome-to-the-big-leagues party for Anne Hathaway. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: No doubt it was fun assembling so many close associates, but like Kym, Demme doesn't know when enough is enough for those who aren't part of the family circle. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: It may be painful at times, but Rachel Getting Married sure is one heck of a party. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: With a powerhouse performance in Rachel Getting Married, Anne Hathaway slams shut the book on princess diaries and such with authority. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Demme and screenwriter Jenny Lumet have given us an epic rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and reception that's half-cabaret, half group-therapy session, and completely multiracial, multicultural, and multisensory. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A filmmaker for nearly 35 years, [Demme] has both the experience and the temperament to be a hang-loose perfectionist with this kind of off-the-cuff yet pointed material. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: [Demme] brings a hand-held non-fiction sensibility that transforms what might have been yet another train-wreck bridal melodrama... into an abrasive but impossibly moving document of loss. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's a great piece of acting -- high drama at the service of the highest talent. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: By the time you leave the theater, you feel like you were one of the guests. I, for one, was happy for the invitation. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It's a successful experiment that leaves you with a mix of hope and despair. To the lovers, best wishes. To the lonely, our sympathies. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Demme's finest work since The Silence of the Lambs, and a movie that tingles with life. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: There is jagged pain, but joy too; there is love and simmering hatred, laughter and anger, feelings stripped bare and buoyed up. All these opposites compellingly co-exist in Rachel Getting Married. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: This is an amazing movie... the best work from Mr. Demme since his classic Something Wild. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: What lingers in Jenny Lumet's script isn't just the fireworks, it's the calm between them where the wedding party toasts the hope of building love from the chaos of life. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: For all the familiar terrain it plows -- dysfunctional clan comes unglued, regroups -- the movie is not without its sly rewards, one of which is Anne Hathaway. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: At its best, this movie feels like a real experience, thanks to terrific performances and Demme's informal direction. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: Rachel Getting Married takes a familiar subject -- the raw nerves of American family life with -- and draws fresh blood. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: A minor work, but so menaced by distress that the characters take every opportunity to dance the dark away. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Rachel Getting Married, [Demme's] newest feature, is a return to the low-budget, low-stress roots of Citizens Band and Melvin and Howard. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: A film that is both deceptively modest and deeply resonant. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Worth celebrating as an overdue return to form by '80s icon Jonathan Demme. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Acted and written with enormous style but with front and back doors open to experiment and surprise, it's a film that challenges you to keep a jogger's pace to keep up with it, then leaves you breathless. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: I hope that Rachel Getting Married is enough of a hit to sustain [Demme's] career of cinematic good works. And I hope also that Ms. Winger gets a long overdue Oscar for best supporting actress, as she is that without a doubt. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Rachel Getting Married is a magical wallow in excess, a too-happy, too-sad, too-indulgent plunge into an over-planned wedding. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Bravo to Demme, Lumet, and three extraordinary actresses. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: At times, the movie gets bogged down in minutia but the emotions evoked and captured are as honest and brutal as one is likely to find on film. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Apart from the story, which is interesting enough, Rachel Getting Married is like the theme music for an evolving new age. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: With Rachel Getting Married, Demme has once again scaled back, making a picture that has some of the ease and warmth of his earlier movies. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Hollywood should make more movies like Rachel Getting Married, but with a little more humility and a proper sense of timing. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: All this music and movement lends the movie a shaggy, Altman-esque texture, a sense that its scope is wider than any one character's story. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's Hathaway's extraordinary performance that is the film's brightest accomplishment. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Rachel Getting Married is a lot like life: always moving, forever unpredictable and forever getting in the way of best-laid plans. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: The question before us is: When exactly did Jonathan Demme lose his sense of humor? Read more

Tom Huddlestone, Time Out: Those who surrender to Demme's disarming, almost participatory technique will find themselves overwhelmed, exhilarated and inspired by the eternal possibilities of cinema. Read more

Christopher Orr, The New Republic: Rachel Getting Married has the sense to recognize that it only takes one lunatic to throw a family gathering out of kilter; this is not an exercise in competitive crazy like last year's irritating Margot at the Wedding. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Rachel Getting Married is at its best in scenes featuring Hathaway's mercurial character. It's a triumphant and darkly nuanced role for her and a departure from the more lighthearted comedic performances she has given. Read more

Ronnie Scheib, Variety: Brimming with energy, elan and the unpredictability of his Something Wild, Jonathan Demme's triumphant Rachel Getting Married may just lay the wedding film to rest, being such a hard act to follow. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The film is Demme-esque, harking back to the darkness and emotional complexity of The Silence of the Lambs and the madcap energy of Something Wild. Read more