April Showers - some nights at 11. Here's new contributor Sebastian on a TFE favorite...
a shower scene from one of my favorite films
Jonatham Demme's Rachel Getting Married (2008) takes place over the weekend of Rachel's (Rosemarie DeWitt) wedding, and follows her sister, Kym (Anne Hathaway, earning her first Oscar nomination), on leave from rehab and struggling to navigate the highly stressful family reunion. Though the film is a celebration, it's about loss, too. As a teenager, Kym, intoxicated, caused an accident that led to the tragic death of her little brother, Ethan. His absence is felt throughout the film, through words and images, through an empty room or, most painfully, on his father's (Bill Irwin) face after happening upon a plate with Ethan's name on it.
Ethan is part of the sisters' closest moment together, too, which comes right on the heels of their biggest clash, when Kym returns to the house after wrecking her car in the woods the night before. Physically and emotionally bruised, she goes straight to Rachel, who immediately knows what to do...
Come here."
In a mostly wordless scene, Rachel helps Kym clean up and get ready for the impending ceremony. The shower, as they tend to be in movies, is cleansing in more ways than one. In her commentary track on the Rachel Getting Married blu-ray, Rosemarie DeWitt calls the act a "baby step towards forgiveness."
While washing Kym's hair, Rachel's hand comes across the tattoo on her shoulder, inscribed "Ethan." She carefully frames her brother's name between her fingers.
As we hear the band practice "Here Comes the Bride" downstairs, Rachel tends to Kym's injuries. For the first time in the film there is no tension between the two, no underlying conflict.
Kym is at her most vulnerable, and through those big, haunting eyes, looks to her big sister, not necessarily for forgiveness, but, in this moment at least, comfort.
The scene ends with Rachel leaning in, embracing Kym and whispering, barely audible:
I'm so happy you're home."