Anne Hathaway has the ability (as an actress) to pull you into whatever emotion her character is feeling at the time

If she's sad, you feel sad, if she's angry, angry.

I'm mentioning this because I wanted to say something that I figured out about why Hathaway is so good in Rachel Getting Married. Which I saw in the theater back in October and just watched again over the last couple of days on DVD.

I guess all actors have that ability if they're any good at all but I think Hathaway has it more than some.

Of course, it may be that I feel this way because I am "in love" with her but I don't think so.

There are a lot of women that I appreciate for their beauty--I have an entire blog devoted to this, after all.

But I don't think most of them can act the way she does.



I feel a little bad because I see again I've taken up most of this space talking about Hathaway, both because of the "absolutely in love" thing and because she drives the movie.

But, as I'm sure she would be the first to agree, if her performance is not met with equal passion and commitment by her fellow actors, the film dies.

But it is, and the wonderful thing about the plot and the way the story is told is that it gives each of the family of lost souls their moments. And the actors cast know how to take those moments without Taking Their Moments, if you take my meaning.

Debra Winger, as probably comes as no surprise, knows how to pack a lot of punch into her small but key role as Hathaway's mother. And Bill Irwin as her father...well, Bill Irwin seems like Humpty Dumpty after the great fall. But Rosemarie DeWitt, as her sister, is perhaps first among equals.

And Jonathan Demme and his cinematographer Declan Quinn (who shot something like 99% of the movie hand-held) know how to catch them on the fly.

This brings me to something I also wanted to say about the film as a whole, after watching the featurettes and deleted scenes, and listening to the commentaries.

(All of which I recommend if and when you get the DVD.)

It gave me a new appreciation for the film as Jonathan Demme's return not just to an "independent" film ethos but very nearly an experimental one.

What do I mean by experimental? Well for one thing, there were apparently almost no rehearsals, which is stunning in light of the weight the film has.

What I'm saying here is that you know how sometimes, when you see a movie, and you really like it, then a few months later you see it again and can't figure out quite why?

...this is not one of those movies. It's a movie that when you see it again you realize as much as you liked it...it may have been even better than you thought.

It's about missed moments--but do not, under any circumstances, miss it.