Introduction
The film focuses on the events surrounding the wedding of Rachel. It assesses the complicated push and pulls the scenario of a family that requires cohesion and communication (Watch Rachel Getting Married (2008) Full Movie on FMovies.to, n.d.). Kym is trouble, a vulnerable young woman who spends nine months in drug rehab with determination to be clean. She is given a temporary pass to attend her sister's wedding. The family leaves in a Connecticut leafy estate where the marriage of the eldest daughter Rachel to Sidney will take place. Sidney is an African-American music business hotshot. Kym draws all the attention of their dad, and Rachel wants her wedding weekend to be her own.
The Buchman's family has faced a lot of hopelessness and emptiness as Rachel puts it. There were fights, loneliness, screaming, blaming, and their parents' divorce. The youngest sibling Ethan dies in a car accident after Kym lost control of the car due to drug use. Abby, who is the sister's quasi-estranged mother, shows up at the wedding rehearsal dinner and is introduced to Sidney's family (Lou Lumenick, 2008). Abby is married to Andrew, who is her second husband. Sidney competes with Paul in dishwasher loading, and Paul goes ahead and wins. She, later on, she has a fight with her mother about the decision to leave her a drug addict to take care of her brother.
Paul Buchman, who is Rachel and Kym's father, wants to ensure that Kym is alright every time which Kym perceives as constant supervision and lack of trust. He is caught in the middle of the sister's fight and is tormented again about his son's death, which he knows was an accident. He is remarried to carol, who is a patient black lady. Emma, Rachel's best friend, was the proposed maid of honor a role that Kym bullies Rachel to give her. Rachel accuses her father and Kym as having acute boundaries issues (Christian Perring, 2009).
Kym accuses Rachel of having paternal and siblings' issues because of the attention Kym gets from their dad. Kym constant smoking around people is a nuisance. Abby asks her to turn off the cigarette at the rehearsal dinner. Paul has his own house rules on loading the dishwasher, and she goes all the way out to prove that his formula is the best. Paul developed a family rule that Kym always has to call in and not to vanish anytime. He gets distraught when they had no idea about her whereabouts after the fight with Rachel. The next day she shows up from an accident disheveled, and he reprimands her for not calling him. Furthermore, their family is built with honesty, and Kym lies at the Rehab about her condition become a significant issue (Owen Gleiberman, 2008).
She lied about herself as being molested by her uncle, which gets him mad. Family adaptability is grouped into four categories: rigid, chaotic, flexible, and structured. The Buchman family had an unbalanced level of versatility, which is characterized as severe and chaotic (Kimberly Jones, 2008). The two sisters were always in disagreements with each other, mainly caused by Kym since she did not know where her needs end and where the needs of others start. The family fights were rough and ended in spats even to a level where Rachel told Kym that she wished Kym could have died.
The communication system within the family was majorly open since they communicated openly, even with other people around. In a few instances, communication was closed where they locked doors and also stopped the singers from singing for them to talk. There is a clear indication of poor communication within the family and repressed feelings and thoughts. Every dialogue, the family had ended up with fights and disagreements. When Kym approached her mother to ask her why she let a drug addict watch over her, they fight, and her mother tells her she did not expect Kym would kill her brother.
Kym directly from Rehab expects that she will automatically be the maid of honor only to find out Emma is the supposed maid of honor. The exchange between them turns ugly, forcing Rachel to ask Emma to step down as the maid of honor. When the family gathered to discuss any issue, there were constant spats. It showed a lack of respect for their father, who was sitting there. The family role was supposed to care for and value each other with respect. Rachel explained her feeling of worthlessness because of the attention showered on Kym.
Role organization in the Buchman family is evident. The father is the head of the family supposed to care equally without discrimination on all family members. The father had a role to play in writing checks for the purchase of the wedding materials. The mother should play a significant role in the wedding process, and Rachel asks her mother if she wants to do more for the wedding and if letting Carol do most duties was okay. Her mother supports the idea of allowing Carol to do most of the work, leaving her to deal with the floral arrangement.
The parents are required to provide advice in matters and be supportive of their daughters. Kym showed zero levels of internal boundaries as she desperately wants to fit in but with no idea on how to achieve normality. The day her sister expects to be the center of attention, and Kym takes her day. It was seen when her dad was always at her side. When she confronted her mother, instead of listening to the explanation, she pushed too hard and ended up with a fight. When Rachel announced that she was pregnant, instead of Kym being happy for her, she still condemns her sister. It indicates a lack of external boundaries between Kym and her sister. She is so much focused on herself until she doesn't see the greatness of Rachel's news.
Her mother played a significant role in enabling Kym addiction. She stole from her mother; she lied to her, she passed out mostly, allowed her to stay in her room for days, and spent most dinner moments in the bathroom. Her mother justified her situation as a sickness instead of finding a solution to her problem. When she was using drugs, her father sent her cheques, which she used to buy pills, and she lied to him about losing her wallet and cheques to extort money from him.
Rachel is the hero in their family because she is thriving. She is on the verge of getting her Ph.D. in Psychology, which will make her a professional in dealing with matters of the mind. Rachel has been supportive of her sister during her period of drug misuse, which Kym appreciates her for everything Rachel has done for her. She had been a nightmare all that time, and Racheal was a saint helping her drug addict sister. Kym was the addictive family mascot being younger than Rachel and defends herself against family pain by humor and constant apology effort. She accepts her situation and focuses on getting better.
The Buchman family map is created from the divorced couple, Abby and Paul. They both went and remarried: Emma got married to Andrew, and Paul married Carol. Abby and Paul had three children: Rachel, Kym, and Ethan. Ethan is deceased. Rachel and Kym had a maternal grandmother. Rachel is pregnant with Sidney's child. Kym is Rachel's younger sister, who is a recovering drug addict in rehabilitation for nine months. Rachel is getting married to Sidney, who is the son of Gene and John. Sidney has a sister called Kyra and Grandmother Ma Teresa.
Analysis of Family
Kym developed her drug addictive behavior when she was a teenager. It was due to peer pressure from her friends whom she was using. Kym even claims she apologized to a 14-year-old girl. She developed an addiction from stealing money from her mother and purchasing the drugs. She gave lame excuses to her father, who unknowingly gave her more money, which she used in buying drugs. She claimed that the cheque sent to her did not show up. She claimed that she lost her wallet, and her cheque got stolen, and she had to go to the emergency room (Christian Perring, 2009). Also, her parents were not strict with her letting her use drugs, which was destroying her life. There was no form of punishment for her negative behavior, which led her to continue her drug abuse behavior.
Kym had several addiction symptoms of drugs. She stole money from her mother to purchase drugs. She lied to her mum and dad using excuses such as stolen wallet and checks to obtain cash from them. The explanations appealed to her parents, and they naively accepted her lies. Kym passed out in other people's houses and bathtubs and also at home all the time. She lost weight, her hair fell out, and spend most of the dinner times in the bathroom puking. Kym becomes withdrawn from the outside world by locking herself in the bathroom. She drove while high on drugs with her brother in the car. It caused an accident that led to the death of her brother through drowning.
Kym's addiction brought dysfunction to their family. The death of her brother led to the family breaking up through divorce and leaving her dead with no idea of how to connect with other people. Emotionally, she creates distrust in her family members since she lied to them, hurt them, and let them down. Her mother withdraws from her as she can barely talk to her. Her father becomes a shadow of himself with a complicated and challenging relationship with Rachel.
The concern about her whereabouts creates a feeling of neglect in Rachel as she cannot have her special day being her own. The constant fights when they talk show the emotional pain and hurt the family is harboring inside them. Rachel expresses her emotions out loud by telling Kym how she feels about her brother's death. When she approached her mother, she expressed her feelings by loudly saying that Kym was not supposed to kill him and even slapped her (Christian Perring, 2009).
Spiritually, Kym has focused on making amends to the people he offended. She was going for recovery in steps and getting into more contact with herself. Kym attended a 12-step meeting where she expressed her feelings with people who had the same issues as her. She is forgiving herself and asking for forgiveness from her family. She says she could change and appreciates the importance of God in the process of rehabilitation. Socially, she expects contrition from her family, yet she condemns everyone. She lashes out at her family with a determination to be considered. She creates resentment and desolation from her sister. Rachel even publicly explains that she hates Kym. She pushes her family members to the wall causing conflict with them.
Kym's family supported her at the Rehab by sending her to an expensive Milestones rehabilitation center. They provided the cover for her treatment, which was expensive. Before that, she was at the Lobb house hospital for treatment. They checked up on her at the rehabilitation center regularly and never gave up on her. Professional services such as early intervention services on families who have lost a close family member should be put in place to care for such a family. It will reduce the feeling of regret and blame creating togetherness.it should involve the family, putting out their feelings to their members. Also, families should be included in discussion groups that deal with the recovery of addicts. The parents should be provided with resources that provide information on their children's wellness.
Cigarette smoking is a co-occurring disorder in Kym's family. She is consistently asked not to smoke around people since it irritates them. It prevents an individual from creating effective coping methods and having a satisfying connection with the family members. Cigarette creates the risk of relapsing back into the use of drugs. The family treatment to Kym on smoking cigarettes is adverse. Buchman's family is made of a complicated family. The family has been tested by the death of Etha...
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