Rachel Getting Married
Encyclopedia
Rachel Getting Married is a 2008 drama film directed by Jonathan Demme
, and starring Anne Hathaway
, Rosemarie DeWitt
, Bill Irwin
and Debra Winger
. The film was released in the U.S. to select theaters on October 3, 2008. The film opened the 65th Venice International Film Festival
. The film also opened in Canada
's Toronto Film Festival on September 6, 2008. Hathaway was nominated for Academy Award for Best Actress
for her role, but lost to Kate Winslet
in The Reader.
for a few days so she can go home to attend the wedding of her sister Rachel (DeWitt). At home, the atmosphere is strained between Kym and her family members as they struggle to reconcile themselves with her past and present. Kym's father shows intense concern for her well-being and whereabouts, which Kym interprets as mistrust. She also resents her sister's choice of her best friend Emma (Anisa George), rather than Kym, to be her maid of honor. Rachel, for her part, resents the attention her sister's drug addiction is drawing away from her wedding, a resentment that comes to a head at the rehearsal dinner
, where Kym, amid toast
s from friends and family, takes the microphone to offer an apology for her past actions, as part of her twelve-step program
.
Underlying the family's dynamic is a tragedy that occurred many years previously, which Kym retells at a Narcotics Anonymous
meeting. As a teenager, Kym was responsible for the death of her young brother Ethan, who was left in her care one day; driving home from a nearby park, an intoxicated Kym had lost control of the car, driving over a bridge and into a lake, where her brother drowned.
The day before the wedding, as Rachel, Kym, and the other bridesmaids are getting their hair done, Kym is approached by a man whom she knew from an earlier stint in rehab. He thanks her for the strength she gave him through a story about having been molested by an uncle and having cared for her sister, who was anorexic
. Rachel, hearing this, storms out. The story, it turns out, was all a lie — an apparent attempt by Kym to evade responsibility for her addiction.
The sisters' fight comes to a head later that night at their father's house, when Kym comes home. As it turns out, Rachel still blames her for Ethan's death, despite their father's attempt to calm them down. This causes Kym to leave, after eventually admitting to being high while she was a teen. She heads to their mother's house, hoping to find solace with her after a fight with Rachel. However, a fight breaks out between them when Kym learns the truth about her mother also being responsible for Ethan's death. She confronts Abby and demands to know why she left him in her care while she was under the influence instead of leaving him with Rachel. Kym soon realizes that Abby is denying any responsibility she has for his death. She tells her that she was good to Ethan and that Rachel is wrong in accusing her for his death. Once Kym tells her mother that she was also responsible for Ethan's death, Abby is furious and slaps Kym in the face. Furious, Kym hits Abby back and runs off again in her father's car. While driving away, Kym is seen crying because, while she started to accept responsibility for what she has done under the influence, her mother has failed to do the same. This time, Kym intentionally crashes her father's car into a giant rock, and spends the night in the wreck.
The next morning, the day of the wedding, Kym is awoken by police. After passing a sobriety test, she gets a ride home. She makes her way to Rachel's room, as Rachel prepares for the wedding. Seeing Kym's bruised face from a fight she had with their mother, the anger of the previous night vanishes, and Rachel tenderly bathes and dresses her sister.
Amid a festive Indian
theme, Rachel and her fiancé are wed. Kym is the maid of honor, and is overcome with emotion as the couple exchanges their vows. Kym tries to enjoy herself throughout the wedding reception
but continues to feel out of place and is nagged by the unresolved dispute with her mother. Ultimately, her mother leaves the party early, despite Rachel's effort to bring the two together, and the gulf between Kym and Abby is left unreconciled.
The next morning, Kym must return to rehab. As she is leaving, Rachel runs out of the house to hug her.
was written by Jenny Lumet
, the daughter of director Sidney Lumet
and granddaughter of Lena Horne
. Lumet, a junior high school drama teacher, has written four earlier screenplays, but this was the first to be produced. The film is directed by Jonathan Demme
, and was shot in Stamford, Connecticut
in a naturalistic
style. The working title for the film was originally Dancing with Shiva.
Lumet himself approached Demme about his daughter Jenny's script. Demme has commented that he loved Jenny's flagrant disregard for the rules of formula, her lack of concern for making her characters likable in the conventional sense, and for what he considered to be her bold approach to truth, pain, and humor.
Filming took 33 days and occurred in late 2007.
ever since he spotted her in a crowd at a screening five years earlier. He immediately took her in consideration for the lead role. Hathaway later said of her first reading Lumet's script: "I was in my old apartment in the West Village Manhattan
, just pacing back and forth between the kitchen table and the couch. I somehow wound up on the floor sobbing by the last page."
Rosemarie DeWitt
was considered by the film's casting directors. Demme and the rest of the crew were impressed and immediately wanted her to play Rachel. Bill Irwin
is a personal friend of Demme's.
Tunde Adebimpe
's role, Sidney, was originally offered to American film director Paul Thomas Anderson
while he was working on the post-production of the movie There Will Be Blood
.
Demme was concerned about Debra Winger
's interest in doing the film, but he pumped up his courage to ask her because they had met several times before at the Jacob Burns Center, a film center close to their homes. Winger later accepted the role of Abby.
of the Chicago Tribune
called the film "a triumph of ambience," and that Hathaway, DeWitt, Irwin and especially Winger are working at a very high level. Roger Ebert
's four-star rating added, "apart from the story, which is interesting enough, 'Rachel Getting Married' is like the theme music for an evolving new age." Other critics praised Jonathan Demme, Andrew Sarris
noted in the New York Observer
"his career of cinematic good works" and Owen Gleiberman
of Entertainment Weekly
observed "a fight scene that's as raw as Ingmar Bergman and as operatic as Mildred Pierce" . . . and "Demme's finest work since The Silence of the Lambs.
Peter Travers
of Rolling Stone
noted that Rachel Getting Married is "a home run . . . [it goes] deep into the joy and pain of being human." A.O. Scott of The New York Times
said that the film "has an undeniable and authentic vitality, an exuberance of spirit, that feels welcome and rare".
Many reviewers praised the film for its organic feel; Salon reviewer Stephanie Zacharek noted that "with 'Rachel Getting Married,' Demme has once again scaled back, making a picture that has some of the ease and warmth of his earlier movies, although it also feels stripped down and direct in a way that's new for Demme."
USA Today
proclaimed: "After a foray in documentary films, director Jonathan Demme has returned to narrative storytelling, assuming a decidedly cinéma vérité style that has echoes of Robert Altman. The film's greatest asset is the sense of cringing realism in portraying dinner parties and interpersonal encounters that can throw family members off-kilter."The film's greatest asset is the sense of cringing realism in portraying dinner parties and interpersonal encounters that can throw family members off-kilter. }} The Los Angeles Times
noted:
Anne Hathaway won raves for her work as Kym. USA Today found her wonderful in the role and wrote "Her nervous laughter, edginess and quick temper blend convincingly with her need for attention and vulnerability."
Newsweek
commented: "Kym is a major pain in the ass, and Hathaway's raw, spiky performance makes no attempt to ingratiate. Yet she makes Kym's inner torment so palpable you can't help but feel for her, however insufferable she may be. It's a terrific performance . . . ". Empire felt that "Kym is a peach of a role — she sleeps with the best man, fights with the maid of honour, quips, 'You're so thin, it's like you're Asia
n' — and Hathaway squeezes it for all the juice it's worth, making this raw-nerved, narcissistic
Tasmanian Devil
not just believable, but somehow likable."
, the film holds an overall 86 percent rating at Rotten Tomatoes
"For the longest time," Demme has said, "I've had this desire to provide the musical dimension of a movie without traditionally scored music. I thought: wait a minute; in the script, Paul [father of the bride] is a music-industry bigwig, Sidney's a record producer, many of his friends will be gifted musicians, so of course there would be non-stop music at this gathering. We have music playing live throughout the weekend, but always in the next room, out on the porch or in the garden."
Throughout the unconventional filming and loosely staged scenes, a New York-based Middle East
ern ensemble, including the Palestinian
musician Zafer Tawil, and Iraqi
Amir ElSaffar
, who played the score of Demme's documentary Man from Plains
, compose the score on set. Always present at the filming, the musicians had the freedom – and were encouraged – to play whenever they were inspired to, and to ignore the camera.
According to Demme on the DVD, during filming of a dramatic scene, Hathaway complained about the music interfering with the mood, to which Demme responded "Tell her to do something about it!" Hathaway, in that scene, responded by improvising the line, "Can you tell them to knock it off?!" to which another actor not heavily involved in the scene went off-screen and told the band to stop.
Well-known acting faces mingle anonymously on-screen with musicians, artists, dancers and acting-novice friends of the director. Among them are the New Orleanian saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr., and the Brooklyn
-based TV On The Radio
's lead singer Tunde Adebimpe
.
Singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock
plays a wedding guest. At the ceremony Hitchcock, at the request of his old friend Demme, performs the song "America" from his 1982 album Groovy Decay
. He also plays "Up To Our Nex", written for the movie. "It's my micro-encapsulation of the movie. The song is trying to be a voice in Kym's head . . . " Filmed in one take at the wedding party, he is spontaneously joined by the hip-hop star Fab 5 Freddy, and the dancehall singers Sister Carol
, ElSaffar and Tawil.
Hitchcock recalled,
For Demme, it was about creating evocative music in the moment.
Jonathan Demme
Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop...
, and starring Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway (actress)
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
, Rosemarie DeWitt
Rosemarie DeWitt
Rosemarie DeWitt is an American actress. DeWitt played Emily Lehman in the Fox television series Standoff, co-starring her now husband Ron Livingston, from 2006 through 2007, and played Charmaine Craine on Showtime's acclaimed original series, United States of Tara...
, Bill Irwin
Bill Irwin
William Mills "Bill" Irwin is an American actor and clown noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He is known for his vaudeville-style stage acts, but has made a number of appearances on film and television and won a Tony Award for a dramatic role on...
and Debra Winger
Debra Winger
Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival...
. The film was released in the U.S. to select theaters on October 3, 2008. The film opened the 65th Venice International Film Festival
65th Venice International Film Festival
The 65th Venice International Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, was opened on August 27, 2008 by Burn After Reading, and closed on September 6, 2008....
. The film also opened in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
's Toronto Film Festival on September 6, 2008. Hathaway was nominated for Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for her role, but lost to Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
in The Reader.
Plot
Kym (Hathaway) is released from rehabDrug rehabilitation
Drug rehabilitation is a term for the processes of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment, for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and so-called street drugs such as cocaine, heroin or amphetamines...
for a few days so she can go home to attend the wedding of her sister Rachel (DeWitt). At home, the atmosphere is strained between Kym and her family members as they struggle to reconcile themselves with her past and present. Kym's father shows intense concern for her well-being and whereabouts, which Kym interprets as mistrust. She also resents her sister's choice of her best friend Emma (Anisa George), rather than Kym, to be her maid of honor. Rachel, for her part, resents the attention her sister's drug addiction is drawing away from her wedding, a resentment that comes to a head at the rehearsal dinner
Rehearsal dinner
A rehearsal dinner is a pre-wedding ceremony in North American tradition, usually held after the wedding rehearsal and the night before the wedding ceremony....
, where Kym, amid toast
Toast (honor)
A toast is a ritual in which a drink is taken as an expression of honor or goodwill. The term may be applied to the person or thing so honored, the drink taken, or the verbal expression accompanying the drink. Thus, a person could be "the toast of the evening," for whom someone "proposes a toast"...
s from friends and family, takes the microphone to offer an apology for her past actions, as part of her twelve-step program
Twelve-step program
A Twelve-Step Program is a set of guiding principles outlining a course of action for recovery from addiction, compulsion, or other behavioral problems...
.
Underlying the family's dynamic is a tragedy that occurred many years previously, which Kym retells at a Narcotics Anonymous
Narcotics Anonymous
Narcotics Anonymous is a twelve-step program modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous describing itself as a "fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem," and it is the second-largest 12-step organization...
meeting. As a teenager, Kym was responsible for the death of her young brother Ethan, who was left in her care one day; driving home from a nearby park, an intoxicated Kym had lost control of the car, driving over a bridge and into a lake, where her brother drowned.
The day before the wedding, as Rachel, Kym, and the other bridesmaids are getting their hair done, Kym is approached by a man whom she knew from an earlier stint in rehab. He thanks her for the strength she gave him through a story about having been molested by an uncle and having cared for her sister, who was anorexic
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Although commonly called "anorexia", that term on its own denotes any symptomatic loss of appetite and is not strictly accurate...
. Rachel, hearing this, storms out. The story, it turns out, was all a lie — an apparent attempt by Kym to evade responsibility for her addiction.
The sisters' fight comes to a head later that night at their father's house, when Kym comes home. As it turns out, Rachel still blames her for Ethan's death, despite their father's attempt to calm them down. This causes Kym to leave, after eventually admitting to being high while she was a teen. She heads to their mother's house, hoping to find solace with her after a fight with Rachel. However, a fight breaks out between them when Kym learns the truth about her mother also being responsible for Ethan's death. She confronts Abby and demands to know why she left him in her care while she was under the influence instead of leaving him with Rachel. Kym soon realizes that Abby is denying any responsibility she has for his death. She tells her that she was good to Ethan and that Rachel is wrong in accusing her for his death. Once Kym tells her mother that she was also responsible for Ethan's death, Abby is furious and slaps Kym in the face. Furious, Kym hits Abby back and runs off again in her father's car. While driving away, Kym is seen crying because, while she started to accept responsibility for what she has done under the influence, her mother has failed to do the same. This time, Kym intentionally crashes her father's car into a giant rock, and spends the night in the wreck.
The next morning, the day of the wedding, Kym is awoken by police. After passing a sobriety test, she gets a ride home. She makes her way to Rachel's room, as Rachel prepares for the wedding. Seeing Kym's bruised face from a fight she had with their mother, the anger of the previous night vanishes, and Rachel tenderly bathes and dresses her sister.
Amid a festive Indian
Culture of India
India's languages, religions, dance, music, architecture, food and customs differ from place to place within the country, but nevertheless possess a commonality....
theme, Rachel and her fiancé are wed. Kym is the maid of honor, and is overcome with emotion as the couple exchanges their vows. Kym tries to enjoy herself throughout the wedding reception
Wedding reception
A wedding reception is a party held after the completion of a marriage ceremony. It is held usually as hospitality for those who have attended the wedding, hence the name reception: the couple receives society, in the form of family and friends, for the first time as a married couple. Hosts...
but continues to feel out of place and is nagged by the unresolved dispute with her mother. Ultimately, her mother leaves the party early, despite Rachel's effort to bring the two together, and the gulf between Kym and Abby is left unreconciled.
The next morning, Kym must return to rehab. As she is leaving, Rachel runs out of the house to hug her.
Production
The screenplayScreenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was written by Jenny Lumet
Jenny Lumet
Jenny Lumet is an American actress and screenwriter noted for her award-winning screenplay for Rachel Getting Married...
, the daughter of director Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...
and granddaughter of Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
. Lumet, a junior high school drama teacher, has written four earlier screenplays, but this was the first to be produced. The film is directed by Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme
Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop...
, and was shot in Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
in a naturalistic
Naturalism (theatre)
Naturalism is a movement in European drama and theatre that developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It refers to theatre that attempts to create a perfect illusion of reality through a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies: detailed, three-dimensional settings Naturalism is a...
style. The working title for the film was originally Dancing with Shiva.
Lumet himself approached Demme about his daughter Jenny's script. Demme has commented that he loved Jenny's flagrant disregard for the rules of formula, her lack of concern for making her characters likable in the conventional sense, and for what he considered to be her bold approach to truth, pain, and humor.
Filming took 33 days and occurred in late 2007.
Cast
| Actor/Actress | Role | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Anne Hathaway Anne Hathaway (actress) Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries... |
Kym | Rachel's sister, who's been in and out of rehab |
| Rosemarie DeWitt Rosemarie DeWitt Rosemarie DeWitt is an American actress. DeWitt played Emily Lehman in the Fox television series Standoff, co-starring her now husband Ron Livingston, from 2006 through 2007, and played Charmaine Craine on Showtime's acclaimed original series, United States of Tara... |
Rachel | Kym's sister, who's to be married |
| Bill Irwin Bill Irwin William Mills "Bill" Irwin is an American actor and clown noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He is known for his vaudeville-style stage acts, but has made a number of appearances on film and television and won a Tony Award for a dramatic role on... |
Paul | Kym and Rachel's father |
| Debra Winger Debra Winger Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival... |
Abby | Kym and Rachel's estranged mother, denied responsibility Kym had for Ethan's death which lead to the climax of the film. |
| Tunde Adebimpe Tunde Adebimpe Babatunde Omoroga "Tunde" Adebimpe is an American musician, actor, and director best known as the lead singer of the Brooklyn-based band TV on the Radio. His vocal method often involves improvisation, the use of effects and repeating sampled loops.... |
Sidney | Rachel's soon-to-be husband |
| Mather Zickel Mather Zickel Mather Zickel is a New York-born actor, mainly known for comedy roles, as well as the character Kieran in . He has worked in both film and television since the late 1990s. He graduated from the Pomfret School in 1988 and New York University in 1992... |
Kieran | Kym's love interest, who has also been in rehab but is now clean; also the best man and Sidney's best friend |
| Anna Deavere Smith Anna Deavere Smith Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is currently the artist in residence at the Center for American Progress.-Early life:... |
Carol | Paul's second wife |
| Anisa George | Emma | Rachel's best friend |
| Victoria Haynes | Victoria | Bridesmaid |
| Jerome LePage | Andrew | Abby's second husband |
| Carol-Jean Lewis | Sidney's Mother | |
| Fab 5 Freddy | Himself | Cameo appearance |
| Robin Hitchcock | Wedding Guest | |
| Sister Carol East | Wedding Guest | |
| Beau Sia Beau Sia -Biography:Sia was born in Ohio. He is of Chinese-Filipino descent. Raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Sia discovered spoken word poetry on MTV as a teenager... |
Wedding Czar | |
| Andre Blake | Inspired Stylist | one of Kym's former rehab friends |
| Roger Corman Roger Corman Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for... |
Wedding Guest | Cameo appearance |
| Tamyra Gray Tamyra Gray Tamyra Monica Gray is an American actress, singer and songwriter, who finished fourth place on the first season of the musical reality competition American Idol in 2002. Record and television executive Simon Cowell — who judged the show for nine seasons — was disappointed when she was voted off... |
Singing Friend | |
| Kyrah Julian | Sidney's Sister | |
| Roslyn Ruff | Rosa | Kym's rehab attendant |
| Sebastian Stan Sebastian Stan Sebastian Stan is a Romanian-born American actor. He is best known for playing Prince Jack Benjamin on the television drama Kings and Carter Baizen on Gossip Girl.-Early life:... |
Walter | Kym's rehab friend |
Casting
Demme had wanted to work with Anne HathawayAnne Hathaway (actress)
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
ever since he spotted her in a crowd at a screening five years earlier. He immediately took her in consideration for the lead role. Hathaway later said of her first reading Lumet's script: "I was in my old apartment in the West Village Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, just pacing back and forth between the kitchen table and the couch. I somehow wound up on the floor sobbing by the last page."
Rosemarie DeWitt
Rosemarie DeWitt
Rosemarie DeWitt is an American actress. DeWitt played Emily Lehman in the Fox television series Standoff, co-starring her now husband Ron Livingston, from 2006 through 2007, and played Charmaine Craine on Showtime's acclaimed original series, United States of Tara...
was considered by the film's casting directors. Demme and the rest of the crew were impressed and immediately wanted her to play Rachel. Bill Irwin
Bill Irwin
William Mills "Bill" Irwin is an American actor and clown noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He is known for his vaudeville-style stage acts, but has made a number of appearances on film and television and won a Tony Award for a dramatic role on...
is a personal friend of Demme's.
Tunde Adebimpe
Tunde Adebimpe
Babatunde Omoroga "Tunde" Adebimpe is an American musician, actor, and director best known as the lead singer of the Brooklyn-based band TV on the Radio. His vocal method often involves improvisation, the use of effects and repeating sampled loops....
's role, Sidney, was originally offered to American film director Paul Thomas Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He has written and directed five feature films: Hard Eight , Boogie Nights , Magnolia , Punch-Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood...
while he was working on the post-production of the movie There Will Be Blood
There Will Be Blood
There Will Be Blood is a 2007 drama film written, co-produced, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film is based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil!. It tells the story of a silver miner-turned-oilman on a ruthless quest for wealth during Southern California's oil boom of the late 19th and...
.
Demme was concerned about Debra Winger
Debra Winger
Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival...
's interest in doing the film, but he pumped up his courage to ask her because they had met several times before at the Jacob Burns Center, a film center close to their homes. Winger later accepted the role of Abby.
Critical response
The film received critical acclaim and appeared on many "Best Film of 2008" lists. Michael PhillipsMichael Phillips (critic)
Michael Phillips is a film critic for the Chicago Tribune newspaper. Previously he was the drama critic of the Tribune; the Los Angeles Times; the St. Paul Pioneer Press; the San Diego Union-Tribune; and the Dallas Times Herald....
of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
called the film "a triumph of ambience," and that Hathaway, DeWitt, Irwin and especially Winger are working at a very high level. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
's four-star rating added, "apart from the story, which is interesting enough, 'Rachel Getting Married' is like the theme music for an evolving new age." Other critics praised Jonathan Demme, Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris is an American film critic and a leading proponent of the auteur theory of criticism.-Career:Sarris is generally credited with popularizing the auteur theory in the U.S...
noted in the New York Observer
New York Observer
The New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a very successful former investment banker with publishing interests. The Observer focuses on the city's culture, real estate, the media, politics and the entertainment and...
"his career of cinematic good works" and Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
observed "a fight scene that's as raw as Ingmar Bergman and as operatic as Mildred Pierce" . . . and "Demme's finest work since The Silence of the Lambs.
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
noted that Rachel Getting Married is "a home run . . . [it goes] deep into the joy and pain of being human." A.O. Scott of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said that the film "has an undeniable and authentic vitality, an exuberance of spirit, that feels welcome and rare".
Many reviewers praised the film for its organic feel; Salon reviewer Stephanie Zacharek noted that "with 'Rachel Getting Married,' Demme has once again scaled back, making a picture that has some of the ease and warmth of his earlier movies, although it also feels stripped down and direct in a way that's new for Demme."
USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
proclaimed: "After a foray in documentary films, director Jonathan Demme has returned to narrative storytelling, assuming a decidedly cinéma vérité style that has echoes of Robert Altman. The film's greatest asset is the sense of cringing realism in portraying dinner parties and interpersonal encounters that can throw family members off-kilter."The film's greatest asset is the sense of cringing realism in portraying dinner parties and interpersonal encounters that can throw family members off-kilter. }} The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
noted:
Anne Hathaway won raves for her work as Kym. USA Today found her wonderful in the role and wrote "Her nervous laughter, edginess and quick temper blend convincingly with her need for attention and vulnerability."
Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
commented: "Kym is a major pain in the ass, and Hathaway's raw, spiky performance makes no attempt to ingratiate. Yet she makes Kym's inner torment so palpable you can't help but feel for her, however insufferable she may be. It's a terrific performance . . . ". Empire felt that "Kym is a peach of a role — she sleeps with the best man, fights with the maid of honour, quips, 'You're so thin, it's like you're Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n' — and Hathaway squeezes it for all the juice it's worth, making this raw-nerved, narcissistic
Narcissism
Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...
Tasmanian Devil
Tasmanian Devil
The Tasmanian devil is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae, now found in the wild only on the Australian island state of Tasmania. The size of a small dog, it became the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world following the extinction of the thylacine in 1936...
not just believable, but somehow likable."
, the film holds an overall 86 percent rating at Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
Top ten lists
The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.- 1st - David EdelsteinDavid EdelsteinDavid Edelstein is the chief film critic for New York Magazine, as well as the film critic for NPR's Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning. He lives in Brooklyn, New York....
, New YorkNew York (magazine)New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New... - 1st - Ed Gonzalez, Slant MagazineSlant MagazineSlant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
- 1st - Keith Phipps, The A.V. ClubThe A.V. ClubThe A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
- 1st - Nathan RabinNathan RabinNathan Rabin is an American film and music critic. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Rabin was the first head writer for The A.V. Club, a position he continues to hold today....
, The A.V. ClubThe A.V. ClubThe A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its... - 1st - Scott Tobias, The A.V. ClubThe A.V. ClubThe A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
- 2nd - David DenbyDavid Denby (film critic)David Denby is an American journalist, best known as a film critic for The New Yorker magazine.-Background and education:Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B.A...
, The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast... - 2nd - Nell Minow, The Movie Mom
- 3rd - Owen GleibermanOwen GleibermanOwen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
, Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture... - 3rd - Rick Groen , The Globe and MailThe Globe and MailThe Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
- 4th - Elizabeth Weitzman, Daily News
- 4th - Shawn LevyShawn Anthony LevyShawn Anthony Levy is an American film critic, author and blogger.Born in New York City, and educated at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Irvine, Levy has been the film critic of The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Oregon since 1997. He is a former Senior Editor...
, The OregonianThe OregonianThe Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850... - 5th - Kimberly Jones, The Austin Chronicle
- 6th - Kenneth TuranKenneth TuranKenneth Turan is an American film critic and Lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.-Background:...
, Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country.... - 6th - Robert Mondello, NPRNPRNPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
- 7th - Carrie Rickey, The Philadelphia InquirerThe Philadelphia InquirerThe Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
- 7th - Michael SragowMichael SragowMichael Sragow is a film critic and columnist who has written for The Baltimore Sun, The New Times, The New Yorker , The Atlantic and salon.com...
, The Baltimore SunThe Baltimore SunThe Baltimore Sun is the U.S. state of Maryland’s largest general circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.... - 7th - Noel Murray, The A.V. ClubThe A.V. ClubThe A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
- 7th - Ty BurrTy BurrTy Burr has been a film critic for the Boston Globe since 2002 where he reviews films alongside Wesley Morris.Born in 1957, he studied film at Dartmouth College and New York University and has written three books: The Hundred Greatest Movies of All Time, The Hundred Greatest Stars of All Time and...
, The Boston GlobeThe Boston GlobeThe Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993... - 8th - Ann Hornaday, The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
- 8th - Rene Rodriguez, The Miami HeraldThe Miami HeraldThe Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company headquartered on Biscayne Bay in the Omni district of Downtown Miami, Florida, United States...
- 9th - A. O. ScottA. O. ScottAnthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
, The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization... - 9th - Kyle SmithKyle SmithKyle Smith is an American critic, novelist and essayist. He is a staff film critic for the New York Post. His film reviewing style has been called "an exercise in hilarious hostility" by Entertainment Weekly....
, New York PostNew York PostThe New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions... - 9th - Peter TraversPeter TraversPeter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
, Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J... - Top 20 - Roger EbertRoger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Sun-TimesThe Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
(Ebert gave an alphabetically listed top 20)
Music
The music-loving director Demme invited musicians to compose the score live on set, to support the film's storyline."For the longest time," Demme has said, "I've had this desire to provide the musical dimension of a movie without traditionally scored music. I thought: wait a minute; in the script, Paul [father of the bride] is a music-industry bigwig, Sidney's a record producer, many of his friends will be gifted musicians, so of course there would be non-stop music at this gathering. We have music playing live throughout the weekend, but always in the next room, out on the porch or in the garden."
Throughout the unconventional filming and loosely staged scenes, a New York-based Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
ern ensemble, including the Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
musician Zafer Tawil, and Iraqi
Iraqi people
The Iraqi people or Mesopotamian people are natives or inhabitants of the country of Iraq, known since antiquity as Mesopotamia , with a large diaspora throughout the Arab World, Europe, the Americas, and...
Amir ElSaffar
Amir ElSaffar
Amir ElSaffar is an Iraqi-American trumpeter and vocalist.In addition to being a classical and jazz trumpeter, he is also a skilled interpreter of Iraqi maqam, which he sings and plays on santur...
, who played the score of Demme's documentary Man from Plains
Man from Plains
Man from Plains is a 2007 American documentary film written and directed by Jonathan Demme, which chronicles former President Jimmy Carter's book tour across America to publicize his new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.For the book promotion, Carter grants interviews to selected newspapers,...
, compose the score on set. Always present at the filming, the musicians had the freedom – and were encouraged – to play whenever they were inspired to, and to ignore the camera.
According to Demme on the DVD, during filming of a dramatic scene, Hathaway complained about the music interfering with the mood, to which Demme responded "Tell her to do something about it!" Hathaway, in that scene, responded by improvising the line, "Can you tell them to knock it off?!" to which another actor not heavily involved in the scene went off-screen and told the band to stop.
Well-known acting faces mingle anonymously on-screen with musicians, artists, dancers and acting-novice friends of the director. Among them are the New Orleanian saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr., and the Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
-based TV On The Radio
TV on the Radio
TV on the Radio is an American art rock band formed in 2001 in Brooklyn, New York, whose music spans numerous diverse genres, from post-punk to electro and free jazz to soul music....
's lead singer Tunde Adebimpe
Tunde Adebimpe
Babatunde Omoroga "Tunde" Adebimpe is an American musician, actor, and director best known as the lead singer of the Brooklyn-based band TV on the Radio. His vocal method often involves improvisation, the use of effects and repeating sampled loops....
.
Singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock
Robyn Hitchcock
Robyn Rowan Hitchcock is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano and bass guitar....
plays a wedding guest. At the ceremony Hitchcock, at the request of his old friend Demme, performs the song "America" from his 1982 album Groovy Decay
Groovy Decay
Groovy Decay was the second solo album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in 1982. His backing band for the record featured Sara Lee of Gang of Four on bass and Anthony Thistlethwaite of the Waterboys on sax....
. He also plays "Up To Our Nex", written for the movie. "It's my micro-encapsulation of the movie. The song is trying to be a voice in Kym's head . . . " Filmed in one take at the wedding party, he is spontaneously joined by the hip-hop star Fab 5 Freddy, and the dancehall singers Sister Carol
Sister Carol
Carol Theresa East , known by her stage name of Sister Carol, is a Jamaican reggae recording artist....
, ElSaffar and Tawil.
Hitchcock recalled,
For Demme, it was about creating evocative music in the moment.
Awards and nominations
| Awards | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Award | Category | Name | Results |
| Academy Awards Academy Awards An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers... |
Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
Anne Hathaway Anne Hathaway (actress) Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries... |
|
| Austin Film Critics Association Austin Film Critics Association Awards 2008 The 4th Austin Film Critics Association Awards honored the best filmmaking of 2008.-Top 10 Films:* The Dark Knight* Slumdog Millionaire* Milk* Synecdoche, New York* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button* The Wrestler* WALL-E... |
Best Actress | Anne Hathaway Anne Hathaway (actress) Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries... |
|
| Broadcast Film Critics Association Broadcast Film Critics Association The Broadcast Film Critics Association is the largest film critics organization in the United States and Canada , representing approximately 250 television, radio and online critics.... Awards |
Best Actress BFCA Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress The Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is one of nineteen awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Broadcast Film Critics Association.- List of winners and nominees :... |
Anne Hathaway | |
| Best Cast | Acting Ensemble | ||
| Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Best Actress Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress The Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is an annual award given by the Chicago Film Critics Association.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:... |
Anne Hathaway | |
| Best Supporting Actor Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor The Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor is an annual award given by the Chicago Film Critics Association.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:... |
Bill Irwin Bill Irwin William Mills "Bill" Irwin is an American actor and clown noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He is known for his vaudeville-style stage acts, but has made a number of appearances on film and television and won a Tony Award for a dramatic role on... |
||
| Best Supporting Actress Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress The Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress is an annual award given by the Chicago Film Critics Association.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:... |
Rosemarie DeWitt Rosemarie DeWitt Rosemarie DeWitt is an American actress. DeWitt played Emily Lehman in the Fox television series Standoff, co-starring her now husband Ron Livingston, from 2006 through 2007, and played Charmaine Craine on Showtime's acclaimed original series, United States of Tara... |
||
| Best Original Screenplay Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Screenplay The Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Screenplay is one of the annual awards given by the Chicago Film Critics Association.-2000s:-2010s:-References:... |
Jenny Lumet | ||
| Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association is an organization of 35 print, radio/TV and internet journalists from Dallas-Fort Worth-based publications... |
Best Actress Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is an award given by the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association to honor the best achievements in filmmaking.-Winners and nominees:*1993: Holly Hunter - The Piano*1994:... |
Anne Hathaway | |
| Detroit Film Critics Society | Best Actress | Anne Hathaway | |
| Best Supporting Actress | Rosemarie DeWitt | ||
| Best Ensemble | |||
| Best Newcomer | Rosemarie DeWitt | ||
| EDA Annual Achievement Awards | Best Ensemble Cast | ||
| Best Woman Screenwriter | Jenny Lumet | ||
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress - Drama Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama The Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture - Drama was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as a separate category in 1951... |
Anne Hathaway | |
| Gotham Awards Gotham Independent Film Awards 2008 -Best Film : Frozen River*Ballast*Synecdoche, New York*The Visitor*The Wrestler-Best Ensemble Cast: Synecdoche, New York Vicky Cristina Barcelona*Ballast*Rachel Getting Married*The Visitor... |
Breakthrough Actor | Rosemarie DeWitt Rosemarie DeWitt Rosemarie DeWitt is an American actress. DeWitt played Emily Lehman in the Fox television series Standoff, co-starring her now husband Ron Livingston, from 2006 through 2007, and played Charmaine Craine on Showtime's acclaimed original series, United States of Tara... |
|
| Best Ensemble Cast | Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin Bill Irwin William Mills "Bill" Irwin is an American actor and clown noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He is known for his vaudeville-style stage acts, but has made a number of appearances on film and television and won a Tony Award for a dramatic role on... Tunde Adebimpe Tunde Adebimpe Babatunde Omoroga "Tunde" Adebimpe is an American musician, actor, and director best known as the lead singer of the Brooklyn-based band TV on the Radio. His vocal method often involves improvisation, the use of effects and repeating sampled loops.... , Anna Deavere Smith Anna Deavere Smith Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is currently the artist in residence at the Center for American Progress.-Early life:... Anisa George, Debra Winger Debra Winger Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival... |
||
| Houston Film Critics Society | Best Actress | Anne Hathaway | |
| Independent Spirit Awards Independent Spirit Awards The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit... |
Best Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Film The Independent Spirit Award for Best Film is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards.-1980s:* 1985: After Hours - Martin Scorsese** Blood Simple - Joel and Ethan Coen** Smooth Talk... |
||
| Best Director Independent Spirit Award for Best Director The Film Independent's Spirit Award for Best Director is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards.- 1980s :* 1985: Joel Coen – Blood Simple** Martin Scorsese – After Hours** Joyce Chopra – Smooth Talk... |
Jonathan Demme Jonathan Demme Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop... |
||
| Best First Screenplay Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay The Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay is one of the annual awards given by Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers.-1990s:1994*David O... |
Jenny Lumet | ||
| Best Lead Female | Anne Hathaway | ||
| Best Supporting Female | Rosemarie DeWitt | ||
| Best Supporting Female | Debra Winger Debra Winger Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival... |
||
| National Board of Review Awards National Board of Review Awards 2008 The 80th National Board of Review Awards, honoring the best in film for 2008, were given on 4 December 2008.-Top 10 films:*Burn After Reading*Changeling*The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*The Dark Knight*Defiance*Frost/Nixon... |
Best Actress National Board of Review Award for Best Actress The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Award for Best Actress is one of the annual film awards given by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.-1940s:-1950s:- 1960s :- 1970s :- 1980s :- 1990s :- 2000s :-2010s:... |
Anne Hathaway | |
| New York Film Critics Circle Awards New York Film Critics Circle Awards New York Film Critics' Circle Awards are given annually to honor excellence in cinema worldwide by an organization of film reviewers from New York City-based publications. It is considered one of the most important precursors to the Academy Awards.... |
Best Screenplay New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay is one the annual film awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle.-1950s:-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... |
Jenny Lumet | |
| Palm Springs International Film Festival Palm Springs International Film Festival Palm Springs International Film Festival is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. It was started in 1989 and is held annually in January... |
Desert Palms Achievement Award for Best Actress | Anne Hathaway | |
| Satellite Awards Satellite Awards The Satellite Awards are an annual award given by the International Press Academy. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards.- Film :*Best Actor – Drama*Best Actor – Musical or Comedy*Best Actress – Drama... |
Best Supporting Actress Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture The Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture is one of the Satellite Awards presented annually by the International Press Academy.- 1990s :Best Supporting Actress – Drama*1996: Courtney Love - The People vs... |
Rosemarie DeWitt | |
| Best Actress - Drama Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama The Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama is one of the annual awards given by the International Press Academy.- Winners and nominees :The following listing is based on the web postings of the International Press Academy.- 1990s :... |
Anne Hathaway | ||
| Screen Actors Guild Awards Screen Actors Guild Awards A Screen Actors Guild Award is an accolade given by the Screen Actors Guild to recognize outstanding performances by its members. The statuette given, a nude male figure holding both a mask of comedy and a mask of tragedy, is called "The Actor"... |
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role | Anne Hathaway | |
| Southeastern Film Critics Association Southeastern Film Critics Association The Southeastern Film Critics Association is an organization of film reviewers from publications based in the Southeastern United States.... |
Best Actress Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress The Southeastern Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given by the Southeastern Film Critics Association to honor the finest female lead acting.-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... |
Anne Hathaway | |
| St. Louis Film Critics Association | Best Actress | Anne Hathaway | |
| Utah Film Critics Association Utah Film Critics Association The Utah Film Critics Association is an organization of cinema journalists affiliated with publications, broadcasting stations and online media based in Utah... |
Best Supporting Actress | Rosemarie DeWitt | |
| Best Screenplay | Jenny Lumet | ||
| Venice Film Festival Venice Film Festival The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the... |
Golden Lion Golden Lion Il Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes... |
||
| Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards 2007 The 6th Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards, honouring the best in filmmaking in 2007, were given on 10 December 2007.-Winners:*Best Actor:**George Clooney - Michael Clayton*Best Actress:... |
Best Supporting Actress | Rosemarie DeWitt | |
| Best Screenplay | Jenny Lumet | ||