Rachel Getting Married | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Jonathan Demme |
Written by | Jenny Lumet |
Produced by | Jonathan Demme Neda Armian Marc E. Platt |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Declan Quinn |
Edited by | Tim Squyres |
Music by | Donald Harrison Jr. Zafer Tawil |
Distributed by | Sony Pictures Classics |
Release dates |
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Running time | 114 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $12 million [1] |
Box office | $17.5 million [1] |
Rachel Getting Married is a 2008 American drama film directed by Jonathan Demme, and starring Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, and Debra Winger. The film premiered at the 65th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2008, [2] opened in Canada's Toronto International Film Festival on September 6 and released in the U.S. to select theaters on October 3. Hathaway received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her performance in the film.
Kym Buchman is released from rehab for a few days to attend her older sister Rachel's wedding at their childhood home. While friends and family prepare for the festivities, Kym struggles to reintegrate with them, as her history of substance abuse has made her the black sheep of the family.
Despite Kym's nine months of sobriety, her father Paul is uncomfortable with her driving, leading her to bike to a mandated drug test and Narcotics Anonymous meeting. She returns home and is introduced to Rachel's fiancé Sidney and his best man Kieran. Recognizing each other from the meeting, Kym and Kieran have sex, and he reveals that Rachel's best friend Emma will be her maid of honor. Kym confronts her sister, and it becomes clear that Kym's self-destructive behavior has caused a deep rift between them.
Rachel resents the attention her sister is drawing away from the wedding, exacerbated by Kym's behavior at the rehearsal dinner: amid toasts from friends and family, Kym awkwardly jokes about her addiction and "makes amends" with Rachel and others in the gathering for her past actions, as part of her twelve-step program. Later Rachel, angry at what she thinks is Kym's insincere and inappropriate "amends", erupts at Kym and the two engage in an intense argument, which Rachel ends by announcing she is pregnant, to the delight of everyone but Kym.
A disagreement between Sidney and Paul about loading the dishwasher turns into a friendly competition, which is cut short when Paul finds a plate that belonged to his late son Ethan, Rachel and Kym's younger brother. At another NA meeting, Kym reveals that she was responsible for Ethan's death: as a teen, an intoxicated Kym was driving Ethan home, but lost control of the car and drove into a lake, where he drowned.
The day before the wedding, the bridal party visits a salon, where Kym is approached by a man she met at rehab years ago. He thanks her for having inspired him with her stories of overcoming trauma; overhearing this and realizing these stories were lies, Rachel storms out, angry that Kym would lie about having been molested by an uncle or tending to an anorexic sister.
Tensions flare between the sisters when Rachel tells the family that Kym was untruthful during her treatment, and that she has never forgiven Kym for their brother's death. Kym acknowledges that any amount of progress she makes may never make her worthy of forgiveness and drives off in her father's car to her mother Abby's home. Kym's attempt to find closure backfires when Abby refuses to take responsibility for leaving Kym with Ethan when she knew her daughter was an addict, culminating in a physical altercation.
Distraught, Kym crashes the car in what may have been an attempted suicide, but survives. The morning of the wedding, she is woken in the car by police and passes a field sobriety test, then is driven home and makes her way to Rachel's room. Seeing Kym's bruised face, Rachel tenderly bathes and dresses her sister, discovering Kym's tattoo of a rose with "Ethan" tattooed beneath it.
Amid a festive Indian theme, Rachel and Sidney are wed. Kym is the maid of honor and is overcome with emotion as the couple exchange their vows. She tries to enjoy herself throughout the reception, but continues to feel alienated, and plagued by her dispute with Abby, who leaves early despite Rachel's effort to bring them together. The next morning, as Kym returns to rehab, Rachel runs out of the house to hug her.
The screenplay was written by Jenny Lumet, the daughter of director Sidney Lumet and granddaughter of Lena Horne. Lumet, a junior high school drama teacher, had written four earlier screenplays, but this was the first to be produced.[ citation needed ] The film was directed by Jonathan Demme, and was shot in Stamford, Connecticut in a naturalistic style. The working title for the film was originally Dancing with Shiva.[ citation needed ]
Sidney Lumet himself approached Demme about his daughter Jenny's script. Demme has commented that he loved Jenny's flagrant disregard for the rules of formula, her lack of concern for making her characters likable in the conventional sense, and for what he considered to be her bold approach to truth, pain, and humor. [3]
Filming took 33 days and occurred in late 2007. [4]
Demme had wanted to work with Anne Hathaway ever since he spotted her in a crowd at a screening five years earlier. He immediately took her in consideration for the lead role. [3] Hathaway later said of her first reading Lumet's script: "I was in my old apartment in the West Village Manhattan, just pacing back and forth between the kitchen table and the couch. I somehow wound up on the floor sobbing by the last page." [4]
Rosemarie DeWitt was considered by the film's casting directors. Demme and the rest of the crew were impressed and immediately wanted her to play Rachel. Bill Irwin is a personal friend of Demme's.
Tunde Adebimpe's role, Sidney, was originally offered to American film director Paul Thomas Anderson while he was working on the post-production of the movie There Will Be Blood . [5]
Demme was concerned about Debra Winger's interest in doing the film, but he pumped up his courage to ask her because they had met several times before at the Jacob Burns Center, a film center close to their homes. Winger later accepted the role of Abby. [3]
The music-loving director Demme invited musicians to compose the score live on set, to support the film's storyline. [6]
"For the longest time," Demme has said, "I've had this desire to provide the musical dimension of a movie without traditionally scored music. I thought: wait a minute; in the script, Paul [father of the bride] is a music-industry bigwig, Sidney's a record producer, many of his friends will be gifted musicians, so of course there would be non-stop music at this gathering. We have music playing live throughout the weekend, but always in the next room, out on the porch or in the garden." [6]
Throughout the unconventional filming and loosely staged scenes, a New York–based Middle Eastern ensemble, including Palestinian musician Zafer Tawil, and Iraqi Amir ElSaffar, who played the score of Demme's documentary Man from Plains , compose the score on set. Always present at the filming, the musicians had the freedom—and were encouraged—to play whenever they were inspired to, and to ignore the camera.
According to Demme on the DVD, during filming of a dramatic scene, Hathaway complained about the music interfering with the mood, to which Demme responded, "Tell her to do something about it!" Hathaway, in that scene, responded by improvising the line, "Can you tell them to knock it off?!" to which another actor not heavily involved in the scene went off-screen and told the band to stop. [7]
Well-known actors mingle anonymously on-screen with musicians, artists, and dancers. Among them are the New Orleanian saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr., and the Brooklyn-based TV on the Radio's lead singer Tunde Adebimpe.
Singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock plays a wedding guest. At the ceremony Hitchcock, at the request of his old friend Demme, performs the song "America" from his 1982 album Groovy Decay . He also plays "Up To Our Nex." written for the movie. "It's my micro-encapsulation of the movie. The song is trying to be a voice in Kym's head." [6] Filmed in one take at the wedding party, he is spontaneously joined by the hip-hop star Fab 5 Freddy, and the dancehall singers Sister Carol, ElSaffar and Tawil.
Hitchcock recalled,
My memory of the whole thing is of being at a real wedding, although without the alcohol. A lot was shot in real time and the end result was the whole thing seemed as if it really had happened. It's as real as it gets. By the time I did 'Up To Our Nex' in the tent I had 15 people. Amir did a horn arrangement and Demme's son Brooklyn Demme was on electric guitar. We hadn't all played together before. The line between reality and fiction – it was a door you could walk in and out of as much as you liked. The idea that they are just playing live, that's the beauty of it. The thing I really liked about the music in the movie is that it all happens in real time. The moments of real tension in the film are not signposted by the score. It's not telling you how you're going to react when the music comes. The music is very organic, not manipulative. [6]
For Demme, it was about creating evocative music in the moment. [6]
Sound recording was a notable challenge in making Rachel Getting Married. Demme's documentary-inspired vision for the film — which consisted of long takes, multiple moving cameras, improvisation (in the acting as well as in the cinematography), and the live recording of music on set simultaneously with the dialog — made it difficult to record a wide range of sounds and to place and hide the necessary microphones. Sound mixer Jeff Pullman described his chosen approach as "miking this like an orchestra", with multitrack recording using up to 12 tracks. [8]
The film received critical acclaim and appeared on many "Best Film of 2008" lists. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 84% based on 201 reviews, with an average rating of 7.50/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Rachel Getting Married is an engrossing tale of family angst, highlighted by Anne Hathaway's powerful performance and director Jonathan Demme's return to form." [9] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 85 out of 100 based on 36 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". [10]
Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune called the film "a triumph of ambience", and applauded the acting, declaring that "Hathaway, DeWitt, Irwin and especially Winger are working at a very high level" in the film. [11] Roger Ebert's four-star rating added, "apart from the story, which is interesting enough, 'Rachel Getting Married' is like the theme music for an evolving new age." [12] Other critics praised Jonathan Demme. Andrew Sarris noted in the New York Observer "his career of cinematic good works" [13] and Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly observed "a fight scene that's as raw as Ingmar Bergman and as operatic as Mildred Pierce"... and "Demme's finest work since The Silence of the Lambs. [14]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone noted that Rachel Getting Married is "a home run ... [it goes] deep into the joy and pain of being human." [15] A.O. Scott of The New York Times said that the film "has an undeniable and authentic vitality, an exuberance of spirit, that feels welcome and rare". [16]
Many reviewers praised the film for its organic feel; Salon reviewer Stephanie Zacharek noted that "with 'Rachel Getting Married,' Demme has once again scaled back, making a picture that has some of the ease and warmth of his earlier movies, although it also feels stripped down and direct in a way that's new for Demme." [17] USA Today proclaimed: "After a foray in documentary films, director Jonathan Demme has returned to narrative storytelling, assuming a decidedly cinéma vérité style that has echoes of Robert Altman. The film's greatest asset is the sense of cringing realism in portraying dinner parties and interpersonal encounters that can throw family members off-kilter." [18] The Los Angeles Times noted:
Helping give this story its essential air of reality is the decision Demme and cinematographer Quinn made to shoot it as what they call "the most beautiful home movie ever made." The director chose not to plan shots in advance, instead giving Quinn (whose credits include Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding") the ability to respond in the moment to what was going on with the actors, and it's a tribute to his ability (and that of editor Tim Squyres) that his camera always seems to be in the right place at the right time. [19]
Anne Hathaway won raves for her work as Kym. USA Today found her wonderful in the role and wrote "Her nervous laughter, edginess and quick temper blend convincingly with her need for attention and vulnerability." [18] Newsweek commented: "Kym is a major pain in the ass, and Hathaway's raw, spiky performance makes no attempt to ingratiate. Yet she makes Kym's inner torment so palpable you can't help but feel for her, however insufferable she may be. It's a terrific performance ...". [20] Empire felt that "Kym is a peach of a role—she sleeps with the best man, fights with the maid of honor, quips, 'You're so thin, it's like you're Asian'—and Hathaway squeezes it for all the juice it's worth, making this raw-nerved, narcissistic Tasmanian Devil not just believable, but somehow likable." [21]
Beyond general analysis, film scholars have also approached the film as a critical commentary on East Coast liberalism in Contemporary Cinema and Neoliberal Ideology. [22]
The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008. [23]
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Ceremony | Category | Recipients | Result |
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13th Satellite Awards [29] | Best Actress – Drama | Anne Hathaway | Nominated |
Best Supporting Actress | Rosemarie DeWitt | Won | |
14th Critics' Choice Awards [30] | Best Actress | Anne Hathaway | Won |
Best Cast | Nominated | ||
15th Screen Actors Guild Awards [31] | Best Female Actor in a Leading Role | Anne Hathaway | Nominated |
24th Independent Spirit Awards [32] | Best Film | Nominated | |
Best Director | Jonathan Demme | Nominated | |
Best Female Lead | Anne Hathaway | Nominated | |
Best First Screenplay | Jenny Lumet | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Female | Rosemarie DeWitt | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Female | Debra Winger | Nominated | |
66th Golden Globe Awards [33] | Best Actress – Drama | Anne Hathaway | Nominated |
81st Academy Awards [34] | Best Actress | Nominated | |
2008 New York Film Critics Circle Awards [35] | Best Film | Nominated | |
Best Actress | Anne Hathaway | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Rosemarie DeWitt | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Debra Winger | Nominated | |
Best Screenplay | Jenny Lumet | Won | |
Austin Film Critics Association Awards 2008 [36] | Best Actress | Anne Hathaway | Won |
Central Ohio Film Critics Association Awards 2008 | Best Actress | Nominated | |
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 2008 | Best Actress | Won | |
Best Supporting Actor | Bill Irwin | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Rosemarie DeWitt | Nominated | |
Best Original Screenplay | Jenny Lumet | Nominated | |
Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards 2008 [37] | Best Actress | Anne Hathaway | Won |
Best Supporting Actress | Rosemarie DeWitt | Nominated | |
Detroit Film Critics Society Awards 2008 | Best Actress | Anne Hathaway | Nominated |
Best Supporting Actress | Rosemarie DeWitt | Nominated | |
Best Newcomer | Nominated | ||
Best Ensemble | Nominated | ||
Gotham Independent Film Awards 2008 | Breakthrough Performer | Rosemarie DeWitt | Nominated |
Best Ensemble Cast | Nominated | ||
Houston Film Critics Society Awards 2008 [38] | Best Actress in a Leading Role | Anne Hathaway | Won |
Best Cast | Nominated | ||
International Cinephile Society Awards 2009 | Best Picture | Nominated | |
Best Actress | Anne Hathaway | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Rosemarie DeWitt | Nominated | |
Best Ensemble | Nominated | ||
London Film Critics' Circle Awards 2008 | Actress of the Year | Anne Hathaway | Nominated |
National Board of Review Awards 2008 [39] | Best Actress | Won | |
Online Film Critics Society Awards 2008 | Best Actress | Nominated | |
Palm Springs International Film Festival | Best Actress | Won | |
Santa Barbara International Film Festival | Virtuoso Award | Rosemarie DeWitt | Won |
Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards 2008 | Best Actress | Anne Hathaway | Won |
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards 2008 | Best Actress | Anne Hathaway | Nominated |
Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2008 [40] | Best Film | Nominated | |
Best Director | Jonathan Demme | Won | |
Best Actress | Anne Hathaway | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Rosemarie DeWitt | Won | |
Best Screenplay | Jenny Lumet | Won | |
Utah Film Critics Association Awards 2008 | Best Picture | Nominated | |
Best Actress | Anne Hathaway | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Rosemarie DeWitt | Won | |
Best Screenplay | Jenny Lumet | Won | |
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2008 | Best Supporting Actress | Rosemarie DeWitt | Won |
Venice Film Festival | Golden Lion | Nominated | |
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards 2008 [41] | Best Supporting Actress | Rosemarie DeWitt | Won |
Best Screenplay – Original | Jenny Lumet | Won |
Robert Jonathan Demme was an American filmmaker, whose career directing, producing, and screenwriting spanned more than 30 years and 70 feature films, documentaries, and television productions. He was an Academy Award and a Directors Guild of America Award winner, and received nominations for a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three Independent Spirit Awards.
The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American psychological horror thriller film directed by Jonathan Demme and written by Ted Tally, adapted from Thomas Harris's 1988 novel. It stars Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee who is hunting a serial killer named "Buffalo Bill", who skins his female victims. To catch him, she seeks the advice of the imprisoned Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. The film also features performances from Scott Glenn, Anthony Heald, and Kasi Lemmons.
Network is a 1976 American satirical black comedy drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and written by Paddy Chayefsky. It is about a fictional television network and its struggle with poor ratings. The film stars Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Wesley Addy, Ned Beatty, and Beatrice Straight.
The Verdict is a 1982 American legal drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and written by David Mamet, adapted from Barry Reed's 1980 novel of the same name. The film stars Paul Newman as a down-on-his-luck alcoholic lawyer who accepts a medical malpractice case to improve his own situation, but discovers along the way that he is doing the right thing. Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden, James Mason, Milo O'Shea and Lindsay Crouse also star in supporting roles.
Debra Lynn Winger is an American actress. She starred in the films An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Terms of Endearment (1983), and Shadowlands (1993), each of which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Winger won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for Terms of Endearment, and the Tokyo International Film Festival Award for Best Actress for A Dangerous Woman (1993).
Peggy Sue Got Married is a 1986 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola starring Kathleen Turner as a woman on the verge of a divorce, who finds herself transported back to the days of her senior year in high school in 1960. The film was written by husband-and-wife team Jerry Leichtling and Arlene Sarner.
Sidney Arthur Lumet was an American film director. Lumet started his career in theatre before moving to film, where he gained a reputation for making realistic and gritty New York dramas which focused on the working class, tackled social injustices, and often questioned authority. He received several awards including an Academy Honorary Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for nine British Academy Film Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. Her accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Her films have grossed over $6.8 billion worldwide, and she appeared on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2009. She was among the world's highest-paid actresses in 2015.
Married to the Mob is a 1988 American crime romantic comedy film directed by Jonathan Demme, written by Barry Strugatz and Mark R. Burns, and starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Modine, Dean Stockwell, Mercedes Ruehl, and Alec Baldwin. Pfeiffer plays Angela de Marco, a gangster's widow from Brooklyn, opposite Modine as the undercover FBI agent assigned the task of investigating her mafia connections.
A Stranger Among Us is a 1992 American crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Melanie Griffith. It tells the story of an undercover police officer's experiences in a Hasidic community. It was entered into the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. It is often cited as one of Lumet's two failures of the 1990s, the other being Guilty as Sin (1993). Despite the poor reviews suffered by both these films, Lumet received the 1993 D. W. Griffith Award of the Directors Guild of America. The film was also the first credited role for actor James Gandolfini. The shooting of the film was used as an example in Lumet's book Making Movies.
Heartburn is a 1986 American comedy drama film directed and produced by Mike Nichols, starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson. The screenplay, written by Nora Ephron, is based on her novel of the same name, a semi-autobiographical account of her marriage to Carl Bernstein. The film marked the debuts of both Natasha Lyonne and Kevin Spacey.
Rosemarie Braddock DeWitt is an American actress. DeWitt played Emily Lehman in the Fox television series Standoff (2006–07), co-starring with her future husband Ron Livingston, as well as Charmaine Craine on United States of Tara. She also was the title character in 2008's Rachel Getting Married, garnering several awards and nominations for best supporting actress. She starred as Ryan Gosling's sister Laura Wilder in the Oscar-winning movie La La Land. She also starred in the horror/thriller Poltergeist (2015), a remake of the 1982 film of the same name.
The Wiz is a 1978 American musical fantasy adventure film directed by Sidney Lumet. Adapted from the 1974 Broadway musical of the same name, the film reimagines the classic children's novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum with an African-American cast. Dorothy, a 24-year old teacher from Harlem, finds herself magically transported to the urban fantasy Land of Oz. On her travels seeking help from the mysterious Wiz, Dorothy befriends a Scarecrow, a robot called Tinman, and a Cowardly Lion.
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is a 2007 American crime thriller film directed by Sidney Lumet. The film was written by Kelly Masterson, and stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney. The title comes from the Irish saying: "May you be in heaven a full half-hour before the devil knows you're dead". The film unfolds in a nonlinear narrative, repeatedly going back and forth in time, with some scenes shown repeatedly from differing points of view. It was the last film directed by Lumet before his death in 2011.
Bride Wars is a 2009 American romantic comedy film directed by Gary Winick and written by Greg DePaul, June Diane Raphael, and Casey Wilson. Two childhood best friends, who have made many plans together for their respective weddings, turn into sworn enemies in a race to get married first.
The 74th New York Film Critics Circle Awards, honoring the best in film for 2008, were announced on 10 December 2008 and presented on 5 January 2009.
The 12th Toronto Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 2008, were given on December 17, 2008.
Jenny Lumet is an American actress and screenwriter. She is the daughter of director Sidney Lumet and granddaughter of Lena Horne. Lumet is perhaps most known for writing the original screenplay of the 2008 Jonathan Demme film Rachel Getting Married, and her work on the Star Trek franchise.
Revenge of the Bridesmaids is a 2010 ABC Family Original Movie that premiered on July 18, 2010. It stars Raven-Symoné as Abigail and Joanna García as Parker, undercover bridesmaids with a mission to break up a wedding. In addition, the film's cast also features Virginia Williams, Beth Broderick, Chryssie Whitehead, David Clayton Rogers, Lyle Brocato and Brittany Ishibashi.
Rachel Getting Married (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2008 film Rachel Getting Married, directed by Jonathan Demme. The album features original music composed by individual musicians live on set that are heard in the film. The film does not feature a traditional score, but instead featured independent musical pieces composed for specific sequences, by Donald Harrison Jr. and Zafer Tawil, who received the score credit. The soundtrack was published by Lakeshore Records and released on October 7, 2008.
And so on. Apart from the story, which is interesting enough, 'Rachel Getting Married' is like the theme music for an evolving new age.
I hope nonetheless that Rachel Getting Married is enough of a hit to sustain his career of cinematic good works.
After a while, Debra Winger shows up as the sisters' quasi-estranged mother, and she and Hathaway have a fight scene that's as raw as Ingmar Bergman and as operatic as Mildred Pierce.
This melting-pot wedding creates a frisson of its own; it's a vision of a new world. I do wish that Demme hadn't let the wedding music, by Robyn Hitchcock, Sister Carol East, and a few others, take over the last act. This much healing-by-'80s-hipster-taste is too much. But Rachel Getting Married is still a triumph—Demme's finest work since The Silence of the Lambs, and a movie that tingles with life.
It's a small movie, and in some ways a very sad one, but it has an undeniable and authentic vitality, an exuberance of spirit, that feels welcome and rare.
After a foray in documentary films, director Jonathan Demme has returned to narrative storytelling, assuming a decidedly cinéma vérité style that has echoes of Robert Altman.
The film's greatest asset is the sense of cringing realism in portraying dinner parties and interpersonal encounters that can throw family members off-kilter.
Helping give this story its essential air of reality is the decision Demme and cinematographer Quinn made to shoot it as what they call "the most beautiful home movie ever made." The director chose not to plan shots in advance, instead giving Quinn (whose credits include Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding") the ability to respond in the moment to what was going on with the actors, and it's a tribute to his ability (and that of editor Tim Squyres) that his camera always seems to be in the right place at the right time.