What to say about this movie? It’s paced very strangely. Hathaway plays Kym, a troubled young woman just released from rehab so that she can go home for her sister’s wedding. Early in the movie, allusions are made to Kym having been part of some dreadful family trauma, but it is not explained till later in the movie.

First and foremost, Hathaway is brilliant. She displays a tough exterior hiding a touching vulnerability. Returning to her family brings out all sorts of buried issues, and she isn’t sure how to cope with being thrust back into her family life again.

The family, including sister Rachel, played bewitchingly by Rosemarie DeWitt, is torn between wanting Kym back and unsure of how to cope with all the drama that she brings. Right from the start, Kym causes difficulties for her sister when she learns that Rachel has chosen her friend Emma to be her maid of honor instead of Kym. The scenes between Kym, Rachel and Emma are fraught with tension, with Emma feeling that Kym is a self-centered bordeline sociopath and Rachel feeling love for her sister yet hatred at the way Kym’s pathos monopolizes the family.

Special mention needs to be made of Debra Winger as Rachel and Kym’s mother Abby. Winger brings a cool detachedness to the role, reflecting how her influences on her children have long-suffering consequences. Winger is brilliant as ever. She displays an awkwardness around her children, suggesting that Abby has never been comfortable with the title “mother” and all it brings.

As a movie, “Rachel Getting Married” suffers from pacing issues. The rehearsal dinner drags for way too long, and there is a 5-10 minute sequence of the reception showing music and dancing a little else. Demme appears to want to suggest how life goes on despite the chaos and pathos around the family, and while that’s an admirable thing to portray, in the context of a movie it means that the movie derails because these sequences drag away from the characters and the plot.

Despite those issues, the movie is worth seeing for the performances of Hathaway, DeWitt and Winger.