debra winger Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Rachel Getting Married is a terse, smart, funny and tough family drama about forgiveness and failure written by Jenny Lumet; it's also a loose, smart, broad and bright film about family and love directed by Jonathan Demme. When these two things are in sync, the end result is something truly impressive – a moving story that appeals to your heart and soul without insulting your intelligence, a film full of big scenes that never stoops to the most obvious possible iteration of those big scenes, a movie loaded with great and sincere performances from the top down. When the two parts of Rachel Getting Married fall out of synch – as they do, most notably, in the last third of the film during Demme's raucous, joyous post-wedding reception – it's less catastrophic than it is curious, and the final film is still very much worth watching.

Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) is getting married; her little sister Kym (Anne Hathaway) is coming for the big event ... which involves getting picked up from her most recent stay at a rehab clinic. A cynic could look at Hathaway's part in Rachel Getting Married and paraphrase Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder: Always go full rehab. And while it's true that the Academy and critics tend to reward gritty, hyperbolic portraits of drug-addiction's misery, the fact is that Hathaway's Kym is not quite as simple as that. Kym knows all the things she's done wrong; she also knows she'll keep doing some of them. Immediately, in the car, the lines of battle are drawn, with Kym going on the offense as part of her defense mechanisms, asking her dad (Bill Irwin) and step-mother (Anna Deavere Smith) about how Rachel's holding up: "Are all of her latent food issues coming up? Is she still hoarding Snickers and Cool Whip under the bed?" Soon, Kym's plunged into the thick of the preparations for Rachel's wedding, responding to the chaos by adding to it. ...

Less than an hour ago, I'd not a clue about the Jonathan Demme-directed, Anne Hathaway-starring dysfunctional family dramedy, Rachel Getting Married, and having now watched the new trailer over at Yahoo! Movies, I find myself equally reminded of two films I felt were of opposite worth: the winning Pieces of April and the wearying Margot at the Wedding.

Following a string of documentaries, this is Demme's first feature film in four years since his remake of The Manchurian Candidate, apparently embracing a more free-form, hand-held style on this project. Hathaway, meanwhile, seems to have shed all evidence of her tough-girl persona from Get Smart as the rehab-frequenting Kym, save for perhaps her eyeliner. And it can't hurt to have Debra Winger and Rosemarie DeWitt around, playing her mother and sister, respectively.

Jeff Wells over at Hollywood Elsewhere seems to have the only opening date around, with the film going limited on October 3rd. With any luck, whatever buzz comes from its Venice and Toronto premieres (and, in all likelihood, also Telluride, Toronto, or all three) will carry it into the looming awards season.

[Thanks, Andrew!]

There's a new script gearing up for production for Sony Classics, and while we know pretty much nothing about what it will entail, we do know the names behind it -- which aren't too shabby. Dancing with Shiva is a new ensemble comedy from Jenny Lumet, who just happens to be Sidney Lumet's daughter. While this is her first feature script, she has done a few roles over the years as an actress, her most popular being 1988's Running on Empty. Jonathan Demme has been tapped to direct and produce the film, and a solid cast has already been lined up.

Anne Hathaway, who just became Jane Austen, will star, with Sesame Street's Mr. Noodle, Bill Irwin (who I always mix up with My So-Called Life dad Tom Irwin), The West Wing's Anna Deveare Smith and that Dangerous Woman, Debra Winger co-starring. The movie will head into production after Demme finishes He Comes in Peace, which means sometime next month in the wonderful state of Connecticut. Since it's all coming together soon, we shouldn't have too long to wait to hear what this whole thing is about. Being that there isn't anything more to say on the project, I'll throw my dancing wish out there -- I want to see some Skinny Legs and All dancing the Dance of the Seven Veils, with an anthropomorphized can of beans, dirty sock, painted stick, conch shell and spoon -- preferably with Terry Gilliam directing. Now that would be a dance!

While out promoting her upcoming film Becoming Jane, Anne Hathaway told Blackfilm that she'll be shooting a film with Jonathan Demme this fall called Dancing with Sheba. Demme, as most of you are probably aware, is best known as the director of Philadelphia and Silence of the Lambs. Lately he's been helming more docs than narratives (with the exception of The Manchurian Candidate back in 2004), but will once again return to the world of fiction for a story about an ex-model-turned-drug addict who leaves rehab after an eight-month stint to attend her sister's wedding. Hathaway, who's been doing all she can to break the oh-so-cute mold folks have trapped her in with films like The Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada, will play said ex-model.

According to Hathaway, the film is a dark comedy and Debra Winger has already been cast as her mother. Currently, Demme is looking for someone to play her sister. I've always wanted to see Havoc, because folks tell me it's a film that demonstrates just how nutty Hathaway can get when given the right material. I'm sick of watching her play cute and corny -- I'm itching to see the gal snort something rotten off the back of a truck (if you know what I mean). Hathaway claims her character in the film has been in and out of rehab for 10 years, which means the girl must have been doing some nasty things when she was a teenager. I imagine it will be tough to come out of rehab and go right to a wedding, so I'll be curious to see how far Demme takes her character. It is a dark comedy after all. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe Demme has directed a comedy since the 1988 flick Married to the Mob. Anne Hathaway shooting and snorting in a comedy directed by Jonathan Demme? Am I the only one excited about this project?