Early Oscar buzz tends to rape a film (anally, very hard) and leave it for dead. People get sick of the movie, pass it like a kidney stone, and forget it all together come awards time. It happened to "Dreamgirls" and "Atonement". And "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Brokeback Mountain". Heaven forbid Oscar buzz kills the chances of "Rachel Getting Married", cause this one deserves some serious awards attention. Anne Hathaway is guaranteed some overdue love as Kym, a toxically self-absorbed nutjob released from rehab to attend her sister Rachel(Rosemarie DeWitt)'s wedding. Weaving a troubled tapestry of venal self-abuse and still reeling from a years-old family tragedy, Kym is out to rip open old wounds and get some vicarious kicks through the pain of the all-too-real, all-too-flawed wedding guests. Sound like a soap opera? Hell to the no. Screenwriter Jenny Lumet and director Jonathan Demme refuse to let you watch this madness unfold from a distance. With long takes and careful pacing, they insist that you involve yourself in this mosaic of very real family troubles, demand that you care. And care you do-thanks to the ensemble cast. There isn't a single weak link in the entire core group of actors, a rarity in this day and age. Particular stand-outs are Bill Irwin, subtly affecting as the girls doting dad, DeWitt, who can convey a thousand meanings with her simple but piercing smile, and Debra Winger as Kym's estranged mother, whose third-act temper tantrum is one of the most jarring scenes ever committed to celluloid. At the center of it all is Hathaway, who lets every quicksilver emotion play out on her face-and not just the obvious ones. Is it perfect? No. The climactic wedding is painfully drawn out, and the laundry list of troubled pasts becomes a bit of a bother to keep up with. Still, stick with this flawed gem, because "Rachel Getting Married" is what happens when a group of fearless artists get together to make something ballsy yet accessible. A-
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