Here at Foss Forward, Oscar season begins early. I’m already thinking about who might get nominated for what, and making my movie selections accordingly. Knowing that Anne Hathaway is likely to secure a best actress nomination for her performance in “Rachel Getting Married,” in which the former Disney princess plays a self-destructive drug addict, made me decide to see that film on Monday, rather than the equally enticing “A Christmas Tale” and “Happy-Go-Lucky.”
Hathaway gives a very good performance, and I’m fairly confident she’ll be nominated for an Oscar, not because her performance is so good — which it is — but because the Academy likes to nominate pretty young actors who give gutsy, stereotype-defying performances. If Hathaway’s character was also terminally ill or had some kind of disability, she’d be a lock to win the award. In “Rachel Getting Married,” Hathaway is angry, acerbic, and haggard. She plays a young woman named Kym, who has bounced around various drug rehabilitation centers for years, and has been given a weekend pass to attend her sister’s wedding, during which she is required to take regular drug tests and attend group therapy.
To be honest, I had a hard time believing that any upstanding rehab center would allow Kym to go to this wedding, because if there’s a situation more fraught with opportunities for falling off the wagon than a family wedding, I don’t know what it is. But without the wedding, no movie, and so we watch Kym chain smoke her way through family functions, sleep with the best man, a fellow addict she met at group therapy, fight with Rachel about why she isn’t the maid of honor and give an embarrassing toast at the rehearsal dinner.
I have a hard time watching movies where characters embarrass themselves in front of groups of people, and so “Rachel Getting Married” was a very stressful movie for me — I actually had to avert my eyes during the wedding toast. “Don't do it!” I wanted to scream. “Don't give the toast!” But Kym didn’t listen to me. She stood up, cleared her throat, said, “I’m Shiva the Destroyer, and your harbinger of doom for the evening,” and then proceeded to deliver a long, rambling speech about how, as a recovering addict, she has to apologize to everyone she’s hurt and make amends. During this stretch, I wanted to hide under my seat.
When Kym and Rachel get back to the house, they have a huge fight about how Kym always needs to be the center of attention, and how her toast was really all about her, and not Rachel, and how there was absolutely no reason to apologize and make amends in front of a huge group of people at a wedding reception. Kym responds by blabbing about the horrors of rehab and life as a junkie, and then Rachel surprises everyone by announcing that she’s pregnant. This is one of the more telling scenes in the movie, because Kym responds not by offering congratulations or asking how far along she is, which is what a normal person would do, but by angrily accusing Rachel of saying that she’s pregnant to avoid talking to her. “You can’t just do that!” Kym yells. But of course she can, and then she goes off to bed, which makes Kym really mad.
Kym is, of course, an infuriating narcissist who thinks the world revolves around her. But the movie has more layers than that, and throughout the course of the wedding we see that Rachel (played by RoseMarie DeWitt) can also be unreasonable and difficult, that the girls’ mother (Debra Winger) is brittle and aloof and that every member of the family remains haunted by the terrible family tragedy for which Kym still blames herself. We also see how sincere and focused Kym is at group therapy, which gives us a sense of how hard it is for her to stay clean, and how much of an effort she is making to do so. And when Kym manages to pull herself together for the wedding, well, we know how difficult it was.
“Rachel Getting Married,” directed by Jonathan Demme (“Something Wild,” “Philadelphia, “The Silence of the Lambs), is a bit of a throwback, an intimate family drama that isn’t ironic or groundbreaking or all that original. It’s the kind of film Robert Altman, or some other pioneering director, might have made in the 1970s. Some of the scenes are cliches. For instance, you know Kym is going to run off and have sex with the best man. It’s inevitable. And you know that everyone is going to scream at each other, and that painful secrets will be revealed, and that there will also be moments of humor and reconciliation. Even so, “Rachel Getting Married” is an interesting ride, elevated by the excellent performances of its ensemble cast. The film is also hip: singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock appears as part of the wedding band, and the groom is played by Tunde Adebimpe, of the rock band TV on the Radio.
THEY’RE YOUNG, THEY’RE BEAUTIFUL AND THEY’RE ON DRUGS: Some other films where young actors delivered wrenching performances as addicts.
Sherrybaby Maggie Gyllenhaal is a recovering addict who wants to regain custody of her daughter and get a job. This film is a little too melodramatic, but Gyllenhaal is riveting.
Half Nelson Ryan Gosling received an Oscar nomination for his fine performance as a caring teacher in an inner-city school district who is also addicted to crack.
Down to the Bone The lesser-known Vera Farmiga plays a mother of two, who checks into rehab and falls in love with a fellow addict. When they relapse, it isn’t pretty.
Trainspotting This film helped launch the career of the Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, who plays the best looking junkie in the history of the world.
Drugstore Cowboy Onetime teen idol Matt Dillon shoots heroin and robs pharmacies before going into rehab, where he meets William S. Burroughs.
High Art Ally Sheedy disappeared after “The Breakfast Club,” but she’s great here, as an artist/heroin addict who befriends a young woman who eventually becomes her lover.
Jesus’ Son Billy Crudup plays a wandering addict; look for Denis Leary, Holly Hunter, Samantha Morton and Dennis Hopper in supporting roles.
Requiem for a Dream Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly star in one of the most harrowing movies ever; this film actually makes a refrigerator seem scary.
Do you have a favorite druggie movie? Comment below, or email me at sfoss@dailygazette.net.
