“I am Shiva the destroyer, your harbinger of doom this evening.”

It’s actually a fairly pedestrian story, about a troubled addict returning home from rehab for her sister’s wedding, and all the stress and painful revelations that the weekend entails. And yet it’s buoyed by a warmth and grace and the sheer joy of that occasion, as well as by an almost flawless direction from Jonathan Demme, and some truly remarkable performances. (Anne Hathaway, as Rachel’s sister Kym, is the obvious standout, but there’s not a bad performance in this thing.) It’s equal parts rapturous and heartbreaking, and I was sorry to leave its world when it was done. As Roger Ebert notes, “A few movies can do that, can slip you out of your mind and into theirs.”