It's cool to see a big Hollywood director like Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) go back and do a real independent film--though some of the film did feel like indie-film-by-number, like the title sequence, and some of the shaking of the camera throughout the movie, and the end credits. That being said there were parts in the movie where I got really lost in the story, the emotions involved felt so real. Movies like this can be tricky-- going in I kind of knew that there was a reason that the Anne Hathaway character (Kym) acted out, was tortured and weird, etc. etc. and i was expecting it to be early child molestation or something like that, but they handled the reason very delicately and unexpectedly, and i think the payoff was effective and really made you empathize with the Kym character. I thought that the movie could've been about 15 minutes shorter-- they really take you through the whole rehearsal/wedding ceremony. The director made it feel like you were also a guest at the wedding, watching along and participating, which is great if you've always wanted to be a part of a hippie/love-is-all-you-need/vegetarian family. I liked that every character was torn between what they knew what they should do and what they really wanted to do, esp. Kym's sister. Also really well done in the movie was the little reaction shots throughout. I'm trying to use this tactic more and more in my own work, where you basically tell the whole story through the facial expressions of the characters. Like when Rachel's anal best friend is giving her rehearsal dinner speech and you see these quick, one-second shots of people gristling and wincing at the mild inappropriateness of it. This is definitely a movie by a director/writer that have lived a bit and know how to recreate reality-- it's material that could've been mauled by a younger director. Overall it's definitely worth seeing.
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