Viewed in
2010
Formats
HD TV
Premise
Anne Hathaway stars as an estranged, recovering addict returning home to attend her sister's wedding.
Loved
The acting, the complex human characters.
Liked
The visually stunning wedding scenes.
Hated
Handheld cameras.
Thoughts
An incredibly well-written family drama full of pain and complexity.
Screenwriter Jenny Lumet painted a realistic portrait of family dysfunction through dialogue and character actions. This was a prime example of how to use words like daggers, each retort diving further and further into their open wounds. The relationships between each person were fascinating, organic and never stooped to cliches. Every character's history and motivations were meticulously carved out, then veiled masterfully by passive-aggressiveness and subterfuge.
Among the spiderwebs of complicated emotions of the numerous characters, the centerpiece was unspoken tragedy that strains the two sisters and their father. As expected out of a good film, layers were peeled, nothing was obvious, and resolutions were not neat and tidy. Anne Hathaway got the praise for effortlessly portraying an ex-junkie faced with an onslaught of guilt and mistrust, but praise should also be given to Bill Irwin and Rosemarie DeWitt as the two other integral parts of the triangle. Pretty much everyone was perfectly cast, and delivered natural performances.
When characters were not hurling emotional grenades, the film did offset the intensity with occasional family humor and a cool commentary about America as a melting pot. The film showed the best part of diversity, as the wedding was literally a glorious mash-up of nationalities and cultures. It might be pretentious to have it in such a serious drama, but it was so beautiful to experience. Another interesting aspect was that there was no off-screen score, instead music was filled by rehearsing musicians and whatnot, to further enhance the film's realistic style.
In my opinion, the film makers' attempt at realism created one gigantic flaw: the non-stop use of handheld digital cameras. They create intimacy and made me feel like I was in their household, but the constant bouncing around was distracting and nearly made me nauseous because I wanted to focus on the actors' faces.
A smaller gripe was how long they spent on showing the wedding. As previously mentioned, I enjoyed the vibrant clash of cultures, but it was repetitious and deviated from the characters to do it for fifteen minutes. The point of the film was about people, not about how many eclectic world music genres you can fit into a dance session.
Thanks to great writing and performances, it was a heavy, but fantastic family drama that hit all the right notes for realistic dysfunction.
What I would change
Not made it 100% hand held.
