First Hit: This film was a delicate dance between a docudrama (like the Loud series on PBS) and more conventional drama and once I got into it with a docudrama feel it worked very well.
Anne Hathaway plays Kym who is coming out of a 90 day stint in rehab, and is heading back home for a brief visit before going on to a halfway house. The brief visit home coincides with her sister, Rachel’s (played by Rosemarie DeWitt), wedding.
The strain on Kym, Rachel and each member of the family is palpable during her first 15 minutes in the family home. There is an immense amount of un-managed (bohemian) activity going on in the house which seemed a bit out of place to me, but it also represented how the children were raised.
During the film there are long extended scenes in which we are participating in family, both bride and groom, activities with very little being added to the primary plot. This gives it the “docudrama” feeling. As Kym isn’t always the featured role in these scenes I kept wondering if we were shifting to another focus, but Jonathan Demme (the director) always brought us back to Kym and her learning how to step into her life responsibly.
As the film moves on we learn that she was responsible for killing her little brother, while high, when she was a teenager. Her mother Abby (played by Debra Winger) tries not to stir up the pot during the wedding by taking a subordinate role in the wedding and in communicating with her daughters.
But when Kym confronts her mother with the question about how could she knowingly let Kym watch her brother when she knew she was high, Abby responds by hitting Kym. However, enough realizations come to pass allowing the wedding to go forward.
This was a different kind of role for Hathaway and I thought she did a good job in it. Her good looks and sullen and hyperactive attitude created a character that was believable to me. DeWitt as her sister, did a good job of playing both the supportive sister and one who is (and was) usurped by her sister’s addictions, issues and problems. Demme did a rather effective job of creating a docudrama feel to the film, however I think some scenes played too long (wedding reception is one) as they didn’t add to the film.
Overall: I liked the feel of the film and nice to see Hathaway stretch in this way. It may assist her in her film career to show this side. It was great to see Debra Winger on the screen again I always enjoy watching her, there is a lot of intelligence in those eyes.