“a wild eyed child of the sun
and right as rain, i'm not the same but
i feel the same, i feel nothing
holding back the fool again
holding back the fool pretends
i forget to forget nothing is important
holding back the fool again”

-“To Forgive” by the Smashing Pumpkins

Reviewer’s note: I always thought that “forget to forget” was actually “forget to forgive.”

One thing I have discovered about life is that it is really easy to hate someone or be angry at them. As negative emotion as it is, there is some powerful feeling from it that really makes you feel alive. At the same time, it is much harder to forgive that person for what they have done to you. You get so sick of someone getting the best of you that you desperately don’t want to look like the fool. But at that point, what should become clear is that one person you really need to forgive most is yourself. That is even harder than forgiving someone else, but it is necessary so that you don’t sink into the hideous swamp of bitterness that eats you up inside.

But can you forgive yourself when you have done something horrible, and can you wipe away the cloud that hangs over your existence and of what you have done? I would like to believe the answer is yes, but that can be easier said than done.

“Rachel Getting Married” is a movie about forgiveness, and the rough road people travel to get to it. It is also a movie about family and togetherness, and the joy of life. It almost moved me to tears the same way “Lars and the Real Girl” did a year ago as it deals with the saddest of things while surrounding itself in an atmosphere of love and much needed togetherness. This is one of Jonathan Demme’s best movies, and it is one of the very best movies that I have seen so far in 2008. I really loved this movie and found myself wanting to hug many of its characters. It is a movie of raw emotions, and I love seeing movies with that kind of power every once in a while.

Anne Hathaway gives a phenomenal performance here as Kym, the wild child of a Connecticut family who has just gotten out of rehab for the umpteenth time, and is headed off back home to attend the wedding of her sister Rachel. It doesn’t take long to get an idea of how much of a “bad egg” she seems like to just about everyone around her. As she goes into a convenience store to get a Pepsi, the female cashier behind the counter says:

“Didn’t I see you on ‘Cops?’ ”

Kym is a full blown drug addict and has been for many years, so while her family is happy to see her again, there are also some deep buried emotions that are just simmering below the surface just waiting to come out into the open. We feel that tension from the very start of the movie, and it is illustrated in Anne Hathaway’s face as we see her feeling like the odd man out at a party. While everyone is happy for the bride and groom, she is sullen and lost in a moment she cannot escape from. As the movie goes on, we come to see the reason for her self-destructive behavior and why she acts the way she does. I will not mention what that reason is in this review, as it might take away from the emotional impact you will get from watching this movie.

This movie feels a lot different from many other movies that Jonathan Demme has made in the last few years. He filmed the movie with high definition cameras to capture the movie on a more intimate level, and it feels like he really let the actors loose on the movie they were in. It is handheld camerawork going on here, so this will probably drive those who couldn’t stand all the shaky camerawork in movies like “The Bourne Ultimatum” or “Cloverfield” among others. While some people may experience motion sickness from this (better take some medicine before going to the theater), I had no problem with it. I felt it helped illustrate the emotionally fragile ground all the characters are walking over, and how easily it could come tumbling down.

What makes Demme’s direction so great in this movie is how he makes us feel like we really are attending the wedding with these characters and sharing in the joys and sorrows of everyone involved. These families feel so real, and it is so great to see no Hollywood artifice on display here. There have been so many big Hollywood movies dealing with families and marriage, and I find myself increasingly avoiding them. But the actions in these movies never for once felt staged, and I loved that. Everyone in this movie feels like people we know from our own lives, and it connects us all the more strongly to what they go through.

“Rachel Getting Married” also, like all of Demme’s movies, has a very eclectic mix of music in it from offbeat to music from other countries. As a result, his movies don’t just have his own signature look, but their own significant sound. One character makes beautiful use of a Neil Young song as he sings it to another person. The audience I saw this with at Landmark Theaters in west Los Angeles was as silent as were the characters when that song was sang.

I also loved how the soon to be married couple is an interracial couple, and no one ever brings that up at all. I guess none of the characters see it as an issue worth discussing. Hallelujah!

The script was by Jenny Lumet, and yes, she is Sidney Lumet’s daughter, but let’s put that to the side for now. She gives her characters a vibrancy that elevates it from the kind of couple we can usually expect to see in these movies. Like I said, all the characters here feel very real, and that is in large part thanks to Lumet’s script which treads familiar scenarios and storylines of the addict trying to go straight, yet finds its own voice and way of saying things.

Demme always seems to bring out in all the actors he has ever worked with in his long career. There are many great performances to be had here, not just Anne Hathaway’s. Rosemarie DeWitt plays Rachel, and she is a wonderful and real presence to be had in this movie. She goes from being so happy to seeing her sister Kym to being utterly exasperated and strung out that she is at home. It is clear that Rachel wants Kym to be well, but she worries that she will ruin the wedding in one way or another. Both Anne and Rosemarie work really well off of each other as two sisters desperate to connect with one another despite the emotional damage between the two of them. There’s a touching moment where Kym comes back from a rough night, and Rachel washes her clean in the shower as if she is washing her sins down the drain.

I also really liked Bill Irwin as Paul, Kym and Rachel’s dad who is so happy to see his daughters under one roof, while at the same time harboring scars that will never quite heal. We also have Debra Winger, an actress we don’t see much of these days as the girls’ mother, Abby. She has great scenes with both daughters as she allows us to see beneath her seemingly calm exterior to see the distrust she has for Kym after all this time. The big scene between Anne Hathaway and Debra Wagner where the truth comes to a head is riveting and painfully raw as they each try to come to grips with what has happened to them that keeps them apart emotionally.

But let’s stop singling out individual performances for now. This movie is not just a triumph of acting, but of writing and direction. All three elements come together to create a powerfully moving film about the flawed and fragile nature of humanity, and of the struggle for forgiveness. The movie has a very improvisatory feel to it, and despite the serious nature of the film, you cannot help but feel that everyone had such a great time being in it. You feel like you are with these families every step of the way, and you revel in their celebration of the families coming together as one. The reception near the end of the movie is one of ecstatic joy and happiness, even while some have wounds that take away from the event a little.

But the person who carries this movie from beginning to end is Anne Hathaway. Many see this as her escape from those “Princess Diaries” movies and to rid herself of that ever so clean image we have of her. Truth be told, she has been doing that for a while already with movies like “Brokeback Mountain” and “Havoc” among others. All that Oscar talk she has been getting for her work in this movie is justified. Kym is not always a likable character, but Anne gives her a heart and soul and makes you care deeply about Kym all the way through. The moments where Anne does not say a word, her face does the acting and reveals a very uncomfortable soul trying to fit in to a place that was once her home. Anne does very brave and amazing work here, and she proves to be a dramatic force to be reckoned with.

“Rachel Getting Married” further shows how brilliant Jonathan Demme is in getting to the humanity of all the characters he observes. There is not one moment that is faked in this movie, and this movie never really falls victim to any sort of cliché that could tear a movie like this apart. This is another one of those movies that you don’t watch as much as experience. The movie is both an uplifting and heartbreaking experience, and one of the very best films I have seen in 2008.

**** out of ****

Now here’s something we haven’t seen in awhile, a thriller with the “Fatal Attraction” like formula. “Fatal Attraction” was one of the biggest hits of the 1980’s which showed Michael Douglas having an affair with Glenn Close (I still can’t figure out why he would cheat on Anne Archer) which he later tries to break off, but Glenn is obsessed with seeing this as more than a one night stand. She ends up going ballistic as she infiltrates Michael’s life and almost completely destroys it. Like “Die Hard,” “Fatal Attraction” became a formula of choice for many movies to emulate, and it was a formula that audiences could not get enough of. It more or less brought about movies like “Single White Female” (which will forever put you off of getting a stranger as a roommate), “The Crush” (a crappy and idiotic movie whose only asset is Alicia Silverstone’s pre-vegan hot bod), and “Unlawful Entry” with Ray Liotta, Kurt Russell, and Madeline Stowe. That one was the gender reversal of “Fatal Attraction.”

Soon, that formula was exploited for all it was worth, and we haven’t seen that formula much since the late 80’s or early 90’s. The only other one I can think of was “Swimfan” (which I have not seen but looks like crap) with Erika Christensen and Jesse Bradford who has a fling with Erika’s character, and you know the rest. Now we have “Lakeview Terrace” which is kind of a combination between “Unlawful Entry” and “Pacific Heights” with a tiny bit of “Training Day” put in. The movie is indeed formulaic, but it’s also a lot better than I expected it to be. This is probably because both writer David Loughery and director Neil LaBute take more chances and are not afraid of taking of getting under your skin with touchy topics like racism and interracial marriage.

The movie stars Samuel L. Jackson in one of the best performances I have seen from him in a while as Abel Turner, an officer of the LAPD and a widower who is raising his son and daughter on his own in this seemingly peaceful suburb. Before he knows it, the house next to him is being invaded by the new neighbors. Abel thinks that the new neighbors are a black couple, and that the white guy is actually the mover, But as he continues to spy on these three people, he soon comes to see that the two black people are not a couple, and this is made all the more clearer when the white guy ends up kissing the black girl. Sam does this whole scene of observation without saying a word, but we can clearly see how he feels about what is going on right next door to his house. It’s another reminder of what a great actor Samuel L. Jackson can be, and he is perfectly cast in this role.

Okay, now I want to stop saying white guy and black woman, so let’s look at these people as individuals, shall we? Patrick Wilson (“Little Children”) plays Chris Mattson who has recently started work at a supermarket chain as a manager, and Kerry Washington plays his wife Lisa. They are very much in love, and they are ecstatic at the fact that they are now something they have always wanted to be, homeowners. Abel ends up welcoming Chris to the neighborhood by pretending to rob him at gunpoint while he sits in his car. From then on, Abel begins to mess with Chris ever so subtly and he clearly gets off on it. Abel makes light of the fact that Chris is playing rap music by saying:

“In the morning, you’ll still be white.”

Ouch.

After that, the blissful situation this couple thinks they have turns into a nightmare. Abel’s security lights are ever so bright and shine right into their bedroom, the wires to their air conditioning system are cut, and the tires to their Prius get slashed. Some of these things happen before Abel’s kids find the happy couple making out in their pool. It is clear from the get go that Abel has a very serious problem with this interracial marriage, and he doesn’t so much say this as he implies it at any given opportunity. The impact it has on this couple is severe as they go through problems of their own. Lisa is eager to start a family, but Chris wants to wait, maybe forever. Chris doesn’t say this of course, but we can sense what is being said without being said.

This is perfect material for Neil LaBute to play around with. Neil started as a playwright and his work deals with the subjects that are easily considered politically incorrect. Subjects that are taboo like racism, abortion, and issues of sexuality are Neil’s pathway into the human mind and what it is capable of. He later graduated to being a filmmaker with “In The Company Of Men” which was as critically acclaimed as it was controversial as it dealt with two men who seduce a deaf woman and then cruelly dump her in some vain attempt to prove to themselves that are superior to women. With “Lakeview Terrace,” he continues to mine the uncomfortable territory that we seek to escape, and he succeeds in creating an unsettling feeling in a formulaic thriller.

“Lakeview Terrace” doesn’t break any new ground, and by the last half, we have a good idea of how everything is gonna end. But it gives us some interesting characters that are for the most part grounded in reality. The relationship between Chris and Lisa becomes more and more complicated as Abel prods at them even more and exposes secrets that Chris tries to keep away from her like his smoking. We also get a good dose of tension between Chris and Lisa’s father who cannot help but ask Chris if he plans to have children with his daughter. It is a union that threatens to be torn apart by the prejudices of others, but they both keep trying to rise above it as if it shouldn’t be an issue. But while it really shouldn’t be, that doesn’t matter to others who are under the control of their fears more than they realize.

There are strong performances from Patrick Wilson who tries to handle the situation with Abel as much as he can before he finally loses it. The moment where he gets his revenge by putting up floodlights that shine into Abel’s bedroom is hilarious, but the laughs end up sticking in your throat, and you wonder why you are really laughing. You can’t help but wonder what it really says about you as a person. “Lakeview Terrace,” while being a typical thriller, challenges you to get out of your comfort zone and to see how we can be so blind to the prejudices that are so much a part of us, and when we finally recognize them, it is too late to undo the damage they cause.


Kerry Washington is also great here as Lisa, Chris’ wife who in many ways has a bigger set of cojones than her husband could ever muster. She is prepared to face challenges than her husband would, but that doesn’t make her any less afraid of Abel. I kept waiting for her to head over his house when he ends up having a bachelor party for one of his fellow policemen and tell his ass off. That would have been a great scene.

The movie belongs to Samuel L. Jackson who gives us a character who we never doubt cares about his kids, maybe even more than he should. With the role of Abel Turner, he gives us one of the more intensely scary characters that he has not given us for some time now. While the last half of the movie does take away from the dimensions he gives the character, Jackson is never short of a riveting presence whenever he is on screen. The moment he has with a suspect who took a shot at him is one of the more scarier and intense moments that I have seen in a movie this year. I don’t know of many other actors out there who can give a “don’t mess with me” look better than Jackson does. This reminds you of why he is still a very much in demand actor after all these years.

The ending of the movie in some ways is a little too convenient in the way it wraps up the story, but it doesn’t completely sell out the movie the way the ending of “The Brave One” did. It takes a familiar formula and keeps you on the edge of your seat more than most films of this type do today. I admired the filmmakers and the actors for not being afraid to push the boundaries of certain issues with this movie because it really gets you thinking a lot about what’s happened after you leave the theater.

I completely forgot that this movie has a PG-13 rating while I was watching it. “Lakeview Terrace” really pushes that rating to the max, and it really should have been rated R consider how mature the material is. Then again, we have come to expect ridiculous from our conservative friends at the MPAA. It’s crazy what people can get away with these days.

“Lakeview Terrace” is far from original, but I still liked it more than I thought I would, and I have no problem giving it a solid recommendation. It is kind of sad though, to see after all these years after the riots sparked by the Rodney King verdicts that we cannot simply all get along. I am always open to people proving to me that we can though.

***1/2 out of ****