During the holiday Hollywood blockbuster season, I find it’s best to retreat to your local independent cinema every now and again for a little perspective. I’m not expecting Transporter 3 or Beverly Hills Chihuahua to offer me a lot of insight into my life, and that’s fine. They’re not supposed to.

I hesitate to use the word “family drama” to describe Rachel Getting Married, though I really only hesitate because the term scares people away. So let’s call it “kinship-oriented social introspection cinema” instead.

No, too scary?

Family drama it is, but before you head for the safe, warm bosom of Tweenpires: The Movie and Hugh Jackman Getting Topless Down Under, pause and consider.

Rachel Getting Married revolves around fresh-and-only-temporarily-out-of-rehab Kym (Anne Hathaway, The Devil Wears Prada) as she returns home for her sister Rachel’s wedding.  Kym is carrying a lot of baggage around, the kind that doesn’t have a weight limit at any of your local airline terminals, and she’s not afraid to talk about it.

Frustratingly, it’s about the only thing she is willing to talk about, and she functions as a chain-smoking drama-bomb just itching to go Three Mile Island.

The bride is going to pieces, the mom who divorced the dad is treating the ceremony like a social call, the step-mom is trying to choose strategic moments to play referee, the in-laws and cousins are in the way and the fiancé and father of the bride are just trying to keep the pot from boiling over.

There’s no place like home, because the one we have is way more than plenty.

And if this all sounds like the makings of a madcap romp down awkward Thanksgiving Lane, you’ll find Rachel Getting Married much darker fare than it sounds.

This is not an easy, breezy movie. Quite the opposite, it will beat the emotional crap out of you. But this is where a lot of the film’s quality lies, in that it skillfully lures you into their world and their struggles without feeling melodramatic or clichéd.  The characters are rich and complex. And Kym’s addictions are only a red herring for something so much more painful in the family’s past. It’s really an expertly woven tale that knows how to hit with bulldozer force.

Speaking of Kym, Hathaway’s nuanced performance is easily my favorite of hers to date. Kym is at times so frustrating that you’ll wish her bodily harm, and at other times, especially during her court-mandated 12-step meetings, so sweet and tortured you’ll be debating the feasibility of hugging that big ol’ silver screen.

The best part about the cast is the simple normalcy in their performances. Every person has clearly built up walls around the things they don’t want to think about, and the coming down of those walls is what gives the film most of its punch.

The music is of special note as well, mainly because, as a family of musicians, there is always someone, somewhere playing something, eventually to the point of annoyance. But they wouldn’t be family if they weren’t getting in the way of something.  Director Jonathan Demme does a great job creating not just an environment of objects but an environment of people and things for them to do in it. The house is alive.

This movie isn’t for everyone, but as the trailer tagline reads: “This is not your family. But this is your family.” There are no easy answers here, the people are just as flawed at the beginning as they are at the end. I don’t think Kym is going to magically turn her life around. That’s not what the movie is about. I just think she gets a little more steam to run on, and often, that’s all we ever get. Life is not a series of pre-packaged movie moments, life is getting through a lot with a little.

Rachel Getting Married isn’t perfect, but there’s love, and there’s hope. That seems like enough.