A young woman named Kym (Anne Hathaway) is a recovering junkie coming out of rehabilitation. She returns to her home to celebrate the wedding of her sister Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) with the rest of her family. By taking us through the pre-wedding dinners and celebrations, we discover that this is a family that has been torn apart by tragedy and grief, with secrets that are to be eventually unveiled. Much to Kym's frustration, she is constantly under the watch of her father (Bill Irwin), who doesn't have faith in his daughter because of her past. Kym finds a more sympathetic heart in a man at the wedding, who coincidentally attends her rehabilitation meetings.

There have been few films to match the utter annoyance of the hand-held camera in both the Bourne sequels. Yet Rachel Getting Married - a self-indulgent experiment in Dogme filmmaking - comes tantalisingly close to stealing its crown. The entire film has been shot by director Jonathan Demme on hand-held cameras to take us into the lives of the guests throughout these wedding celebrations. Predominately natural lighting throughout the film is used, as well as long tracking shots, while the only music we hear is actually played by characters throughout the film. These conventions to Dogme - along with a slightly dirty film grain - are used to inject a home movie quality to the film. Unfortunately not only is the film unattractive to look at - many of the camera shots are nauseating and ugly - but the entire exercise feels highly self-indulgent, appreciative of st*le, rather than a substantial narrative drive. The film is more concerned with showing us a family celebrating by listening to lengthy scenes of toasts and speeches, music performances and singing, rather than telling a complete story. Many of these scenes throughout the film are overly long and do not contribute to the narrative.

There needed to be more of a detachment between the audience and the characters in the film. There is little doubt that several of the scenes in the house are well orchestrated between the cast and the director as we walk through and see a high level of interaction between the guests. But we should not feel like another bored guest at the party. While you eventually become accustomed to the directional st*le by the end of the film, the reliance on many of these gimmicky scenes and the insistence to immerse us into these situations is forced and excessive; perhaps more artificial for trying to be like a home movie, when it is certainly not.

Anne Hathaway is terrific as Kym, shedding her romantic comedy roots and immersing herself as a broken woman, who is grieving and remorseful but remains her own worst enemy. With a cigarette in her hand, an eventual black eye and an uneven rock chick-like haircut, she suspends our belief that she is one badass daughter from hell. For the most part she is utterly convincing, perhaps motivated in trying to remove any memories of her role in Bride Wars. The only question over her casting is precisely why Jonathan Demme chose her amongst a cast of unknowns. She stands out - deliberately so - perhaps merely another opportunity to shake up Hollywood conventions. The gritty performance of Hathaway, as good as it is, does not warrant much sympathy for the audience. We witness her grief and she seems remorseful for the tragedy in her life but the very nature of this film - in setting itself within the few days of these celebrations - does not allow her any great form of redemption. The film would have benefitted from a stronger emphasis on character development. The rest of the cast - bar a slightly over the top Bill Irwin - is mostly competent, though you cannot help but feel they are mere sketches of personalities.

Rachel Getting Married is an interesting exercise in excess. It fails because it is so concerned with its own sense of st*le, rather than telling a fully fleshed out story, with an appropriate amount of character development. When the film plays to its strengths and releases some of its secrets, there is an emotional core that for the most part, is sorely missed. Anne Hathaway's performance unconventional and Oscar nominated performance is the reason to see this but she deserved a better film and should have left director Demme at the altar.