Mixed Race film review: Rachel Getting Married

So I rented Rachel Getting Married this past week, an indie film directed by Jonathan Demme, written by Jenny Lumet, and starring Anne Hathaway (former Princess/Prada flimstar), who is not the titular character but her sister Kym, newly released from rehab and about to wreak havoc in the days leading up to her sister's wedding.

(click here for a link to the film's official website, where you can see a trailer and read more about the cast, crew, and awards this film has won).

This won't really be a "true" film review, more like a film musing/commentary. Because one of the things that became evident in the film, outside of the main plot/character development, were the friends and even family of the central characters (Kym, her sister Rachel, and their father Paul). First of all, Paul (played by Bill Irwin) is married to Carol (played by Anna Deveare Smith). This may not be remarkable if you don't know who Bill Irwin or Anna Deveare Smith are--but if you do know them, then you know that Irwin is white and Smith is black, which makes them our first inter-racial couple. But they aren't the last. Rachel is marrying Sidney--and Rachel is white and Sidney is black (and from Hawaii--there's that extra layer of culture/ethnicity/diversity/regionalism right there). Then there's Rachel and Sidney's friends--a vision of mixed-race Americans of various ethnicities, races, and cultures.


[A scene right before Rachel and her new husband are about to cut a cake that is in the form of a stylized Indian elephant--by the way, this was one element I definitely thought was odd because neither Rachel nor Sidney nor their families appear to be Hindi/Indian and this "theme" for their wedding is never explained--which raises another question about cultural appropriation, especially for weddings, but I'll save that for another post]

According to the DVD extras (on the "making of" segment) as well as this LA Times article featuring Jenny Lumet (daughter of white-Jewish director Sidney Lumet and maternal grand-daughter of Lena Horne), the polyglot of races, ethnicities, and cultures was no coincidence--the director/producer/writer wanted to show life as they knew it--which included having friends and family who were diverse in terms of race, sexuality, age, and a host of other factors. Of course, as my friend "B" pointed out, as much as both Lumet and one of the producers claimed that their friends were this "diverse"--the truth is, most Americans probably wouldn't boast a wedding party that was quite as diverse as the one featured in this film (which included an inexplicable "Indian" theme for the wedding, Brazilian carnival dancers, Eastern European stringed instruments, and a host of very artistic/arty folks just strumming and humming and singing and jamming their way through the film).

Anyway, from a strictly plot point-of-view, I do recommend this film. It was hard to watch, very hard to watch, at times, because there's so much raw pain in this film. On the other hand, it did feel "real" to me--and I have to admit that part of that feeling of reality did come from the very visibly diverse wedding crowd that were both in the background and foreground of events. The other thing I appreciated about this film is that there is no comment about the inter-racial aspect of either the father's re-marriage or his daughter's marriage to African Americans. It is simply a fact that doesn't need explanation or drama. Which is good, because this film has PLENTY of drama without adding racial conflict into the mix. And really, it's just nice to see pictures of mixed-race Americans that just are and that don't need additional film commentary (aside from what people like me are bringing that is).

[Update: 4/18/09: One of the commenters on this thread asked why I believe that the Indian-themed wedding is an example of cultural appropriation rather than an instance of irony. For my longer post about this issue, see my April 15, 2009 post]