REVIEWS
MOVIE: Rachel Getting Married
In 2001, director Wes Anderson made us want to be Tenenbaums. Seven years later, director Jonathan Demme introduces us to an equally charming and dysfunctional family: the Buckmans. Although the family in Rachel Getting Married has several closets jam-packed with skeletons, the dynamic surrounding them and all the other characters who come into contact with them is warm, fun and inviting.
Our introduction to the Buckmans is Kym (Anne Hathaway), the black sheep daughter who's spent several years in and out of rehab, and who has been released to take part in the wedding of her sister, the titular Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt). Through the troubled, attention-seeking Kym we meet her father (the touching and hilarious Bill Irwin), her step-mother, (Anna Deavere Smith) and Kym and Rachel's enigmatic mother (Debra Winger). Hathaway has received well-deserved attention for her performance as Kym, but the film belongs just as much to the rest of the cast, all of whom give unbelievably real performances.
What makes Rachel Getting Married so good is that none of the actors seems to be acting. Everything is so rooted in the moment that you feel you're actually
Rachel Getting Married is one of the most enjoyable experiences to be had this year. It looks like Royal Tenenbaum and his brood will have to take a step to the side and make room for Kym Buckman and her totally cool and somewhat troubled family.
part of the wedding. By the end, it's as though everyone's been at the ceremony, witnessing the high and low moments.
—Abby Olcese
MOVIE: Changeling
Clint Eastwood is an icon. There are few people alive who are as effortlessly cool as he is. Aside from the legendary Western work he did in the '60s, Eastwood has defined himself as one of the world's preeminent filmmakers. His films are laconic, slightly old-fashioned and engaging. In recent years, Eastwood's name has been a stamp of quality.Unfortunately,Changeling ends that streak.
A 1920's period piece with equal parts crime mystery and family drama, the story seems well suited for Eastwood. Angelina Jolie portrays Christine Collins, whose nine-year-old boy, Walter, goes missing.The LAPD, facing accusations of corruption, violence and intimidation, is in serious need of good publicity, and Walter is replaced with another young lad found by the police force. Christine is obviously not fooled.She finds a friend and opposition to LA's "finest" in Rev. Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich). The story forks here into the maelstrom Christine is thrown and the mystery surrounding the disappearance of her son.
Coming out of Cannes—Changeling had been tipped as a leading contender for the festival's highest award—early word was highly favorable. Unfortunately, this is not the case.The movie is hampered by its slow pace. Eastwood normally finds fertile
ground with a deliberately measured tempo, but without using it to explore moments of contemplation or emotional depth, the story falls into melodrama. Jolie is not a great actress, which would be acceptable if she had supplemental attributes—charisma, dynamism, eccentricities—aside from her ungodyly sexy appearance. But she does not. The best scenes are between Jolie and the perfectly cast Malkovich as the confrontational spirit of truth, easily stealing every scene. Nobody else could deliver lines with such irritation and precision.
—Darron Carswell
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November 13,2008
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