Jason Black STAFF WRITER



Fear not, the trailer for “Rachel Getting Married” suggests no sequel or companion piece to Noah Baumbach’s mostly humorless film, “Margot at the Wedding.” Rather than Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh, director Jonathan Demme brings us a hip supporting cast featuring “Mad Men’s” Rosemarie DeWitt, TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, and Debra Winger, who always brings the necessary chops, even if she sits somewhere on the crazy scale between Sharon Stone and Margot Kidder.

But rendering the supporting cast nearly irrelevant is lead actress Anne Hathaway, who seems to be showing an even more vulnerable side of herself than she did in her “Brokeback Mountain” nudie scene.

“Ella Enchanted” no more, Hathaway joins her family, fresh from rehab, to attend her sister’s wedding. Her hair’s a mess, she’s smoking, she’s not in couture. Presumably it’s about as close to an Oscar-worthy recipe as you get without a rare illness or prosthesis. Hathaway’s character even makes a toast, exclaiming herself to be “Shiva the Destroyer.” The moment instantly recalls the “Michael Clayton” scene in which Tom Wilkinsondeclares, “I am Shiva, the god of death,” and since HE got an Oscar nom, perhaps a Shiva reference is the new fatal disease.

The “Rachel Getting Married” trailer suggests family secrets will be exposed, relationships will break down, and eventually, wounds will get healed. It appears to be the stuff of a PT Anderson or Robert Altman situation, and provided Demme can bring this one in at <3>