TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Also Opening

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 6, 2008

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED **

Ever been to one of those weddings that just will not end?

"Rachel Getting Married" is the cinematic equivalent, a movie with a powerful performance from Anne Hathaway but a story undone by the self-indulgence of director Jonathan Demme, who loiters interminably on some scenes.

Demme crafts a loose, docudrama style that infuses great authenticity into this anguished reunion tale of family and friends. But Demme did the reflect-real-life thing almost too well. Many moments are genuine to the point where you feel trapped in a room with someone else's relations in a marathon session of picking and clawing at old wounds.

As good as Hathaway and her co-stars are, a little of their characters' recriminations and reproaches would have gone a long way. A lot is what Demme gives us, and the film collapses under the weight of the family's shared distress.

Stripping away her Disney-fied "Princess Diaries" persona for good, Hathaway delivers a harsh, uncompromising turn. Hathaway's Kym Buchman is a woman who became a hopeless addict in her teens, then sank even lower after her drug habit led to a family tragedy.

Out of rehab for the wedding of her upright sister, Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt), Kym returns to the family homestead and immediately tries to make the hustle and bustle of preparations all about her. The movie shares unfortunate thematic similarities to Nicole Kidman's dreary sister tale "Margot at the Wedding" from last year, but since hardly anybody saw that one, "Rachel Getting Married" at least will be a fresh sort of dreariness for most viewers.

R (language and brief sexuality); 113 minutes

David Germain,
The Associated Press

ROLE MODELS ***

The premise is completely formulaic and potentially cheesy: A couple of go-nowhere buddies get arrested and, for their community work assignment, must serve as big brothers to a pair of misfit kids.

You know from the beginning that many necessary life lessons will be learned and that all parties involved ultimately will be better off for the friendships they've formed. But it's the hilariously crude way that director David Wain and company approach this concept that makes "Role Models" so disarming.

Co-stars Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd are at the film's core, and their disparate styles provide an appealing mix. Scott's Wheeler and Rudd's Danny spend their days peddling the energy drink Minotaur, a job that requires Wheeler to dress up in a furry costume and guzzle gallons of green gunk. Danny, fed up with his life and frustrated that his longtime girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks) has just rejected his impetuous and ill-timed marriage proposal, snaps one day and gets himself and Wheeler in trouble.

Rather than going to jail, the two end up working with the Sturdy Wings mentoring group. Wheeler gets paired up with the freakishly foul-mouthed Ronnie (Bobb'e J. Thompson), who has been raised by a single mom. No previous big brother has stuck around for more than a day.

Danny, meanwhile, gets stuck with the uber-dweeby teen Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who's obsessed with his live-action fantasy role-playing game.

This is the kind of movie in which an adult and a child can bond over the not-so-subtle metaphor contained within the song "Love Gun." But it's also kind of sweet - and a model for comedies that are trying to strike that balance.

R (sexual content, strong language and nudity); 99 minutes

Christy Lemire,
The Associated Press

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT