RACHEL GETTING MARRIED Has IR In It

:arrow: I had heard about this flick but didn't know that it involved an IR. Might have to check it out so here's a review of sorts:

How Older, White Critics Have Missed the Boat on 'Rachel Getting Married'

Posted by Kyle Buchanan at 5:09 AM on October 14, 2008
Most of the attention paid to Jonathan Demme's new film Rachel Getting Married has centered on the Oscar-buzzed lead performance from Anne Hathaway, but many critics are consumed with something the movie treats as a non-event: the fact that the titular Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) is marrying a black man, Sidney (Tunde Adebimpe of the band TV on the Radio). The interracial nature of their relationship goes unremarked upon throughout the entire film, and that fact is vexing several film critics, who dismiss such a notion as a fantasy. Enjoy their thinly veiled discomfort with the shocking idea that white people can marry black people in 2008 without someone giving a speech about it, after the jump!

Over at Hollywood Elsewhere, Jeff Wells titled his post about the matter "Not Supposed to Say," claiming that "movie critics haven't come within 20 feet of mentioning this [unremarked-on interracial marriage] in their reviews." We're not sure what critics Wells is reading, but a boatload of the ones we've looked at mention exactly that — and they do it in a way that seems to beg for someone to bestow an aura of au courant hipness on their courageously un-PC observations.

Both EW's Owen Gleiberman and New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane take great pains to mention the film's unmentioned racial diversity, though to hear Lane discuss it, it sounds like he'd rather be watching a blunt parable like Crash. "The wedding party is the ultimate guide to Demme's benign vision: the groom is black, the bride is white, she and her bridesmaids are dressed in saris, [and] nobody so much as mentions race," says Lane. "I don't know if there were any Republican voters involved in this movie, but, if so, it must have been a lonely time." Ok, yes, some Republicans are racist — but damn, Anthony! Are you really implying that conservatives can never be bred within a cultural melting pot?
Worse is Wells, who virtually calls Demme a fetishist of all things African, rattling off some of the black characters Demme has previously included in his oeuvre before concluding:

So it feels very Demme-ish that the union that's endlessly celebrated in Rachel Getting Married, his latest feature, is between a very alabaster lassie (Rosemarie DeWitt, playing Rachel) and a handsome Afrique-ebony guy (musician Tunde Adebimpe, playing Sidney the groom). It's also a very Demme thing that nobody so much as mentions this.
You can say "well, why would anybody mention it?" and I'd take your point, of course. We all like to see ourselves as colour-blind. My point is that in real life someone in the wedding party would at one point or another throw some kind of slider ball — something anecdotal, flip, neutral, whatever— into the proceedings. In the same way someone would say "oh, it's raining" if a cloudburst were to happen. My other point is that such a remark (which wouldn't necessarily be coarse or gauche ) is verboten in a Demme film because it doesn't reflect his values or sensibilities.
...If the blunt-spoken alcoholic played by Howard Duff in Robert Altman's A Wedding (197 had been invited to Rachel and Sidney's wedding, he would have said something or other, trust me. Because he was the kind of wealthy middle- aged guy who didn't give a shit because he was always half in the bag.
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Why, though, does it need to be said? One might think that by the time Rachel and Sidney had gotten married, their families would have gotten used to the idea that they were of separate races (in fact, Rachel's divorced father has since remarried — to a black woman). Are these critics really unable to set aside their apparent discomfort with the idea unless an on-screen surrogate points out the obvious? What if Rachel's family were Latin (imagine Penelope Cruz donning Anne Hathaway's smudged eyeliner instead) — would their non-white, mixed marriage suddenly become less of an issue for these older, Caucasian film critics?

Guys, there's plenty of actual criticisms to be made about Rachel Getting Married (won't someone address the interminable sequence that is the dish-washing competition?). Why don't you stick to film critique and leave the awkward investigation of racial dynamics where it belongs — at a Sarah Palin rally?

 

I did not know there is a IR story behind that flick. When I heard it it is just of Anne Hathaway's role as a actress on rehab going to a wedding.

 

Yeah her sister gets married to a black guy.

 

I thought everyone knew....

Anyway my lone complaint with this dude they cast is that if Jonathan Demme was going to give a black guy this part (wasn't originally written for a black male) I wish he would have actually gotten a real actor instead of some musician/singer from the group TV on the Radio. Demme practically admitted that he was a fan of the group and that was likley the primary reason for his casting choice. WTF?

Its a double standard I have and will continue to complain about. Its a double standard because none of the majority white cast members are musicians/athletes/singers. No, they are all actors, people who make a living at acting. So why not do the same for the black actors who would love to get the work? Can you imagine what this could have done for someone like Anthony Mackie or Michael Ealy? I thought one of Derek Luke's early great screen opportunities was his role as Katie Holmes' boyfriend in "Pieces of April". I can just imagined how that opportunity would have been squandered if the director had picked Big Boi for the role. Too many times it appears white people think of the "cool" black people they would like to hang out with on set instead of reaching out to the talented and hungry black actors waiting for their opportunities.

 

Lots of Is' and Rs', Rachel Getting Married.

 

Real talk.

 

:smt038 so true

Also,ive noticed that directors dont put nearly as much work into black male actors they pick,when it comes to looks,as they do white male actors.(i think you,or somebody else mentioned this before)
They would never put a below average looking white male actor,with a fine white female actor;but they always do just that when it comes to black males with black females for some reason

i think they just dont want sex symbol competition

 

I Feel You On That...

but at least HE LIVES through the movie as opposed to alot of black male characters on tv that are given some development with their characters & develop a good fan base with the show & then are :smt067KILLED OFF!!! That shyt burns me up & it's the main reason why I don't even watch this last season of ER(because of Pratt's death) eventhough my girl Angela Bassett is on there too!

 

ND that is true.The best IR movie is when both couples live happily ever after or close to it.

 

No doubt. No one cares about finding and casting great looking black actors for the most part.

 

I didn't know that Pratt had even died. That's the second straight black male character on ER to bite the dust. Didn't care too much about the character because I am not a fan of Mekhi but I must say that is interesting.

Anyway I've been meaning for the last few months to write about the disappearance/death of black characters on TV shows and now I have a new reason (and more ammo) to do so. How did Pratt die? What was going on?

 

I caught the tail end of the episode but it was the very first one of this last season & they had him die in the ER with all the other doctors around which was very sad & then replaced him with his younger brother on the staff now I think.