Research reportedly shows the director sought out and lobbied for Hathaway.
The film reportedly has no conventional score: the director insisted on live music somewhere in each scene, annoying actors.
Hathaway’s demand that the music stop is reported to be a genuinely frustrated take that was kept.
The film was originally titled Dancing with Shiva, mocked in light of Michael Clayton’s Shiva speech.
The dishwasher scene was reportedly based on an event involving Sidney Lumet and Bob Fosse.
Demme is quoted wanting live music playing in the next room or garden rather than a traditional score; Robyn Hitchcock played a wedding guest.
Demme reportedly told crew to let Hathaway deal with the music, so her anger in the scene was real; Hitchcock likened the shoot to a real wedding without alcohol, much of it shot in real time.

In the discussion (3)

Approx. transcript time · 00:38:41Read transcript

Roger Ebert gave the film four stars.
His review is quoted: the deep subject is the marriage itself and how a multicultural society is growing comfortable with itself.
The reading is called beautiful and present in the film, though seen as giving the director the benefit of the doubt.

Dishwasher bragging; missing Carol–Kym scene; Kym’s legal consequences; drowning details; too many musicians; Rachel’s unused psychology training

In the discussion (8)

Approx. transcript time · 00:45:02Read transcript

Questions about Rachel’s psychology degree are promised for nitpicks.
Bragging about loading a dishwasher is called bizarre, though one host takes pride in it.
A late scene between the Carol character and the younger sister, as a needed mother figure, would have improved the film.
Kym would seemingly face negligent-homicide charges for killing her brother while high; the timeline is worked out as about ten years since she was 16.
More detail was wanted about her failure to free Ethan from the car seat.
A wedding with so many musicians and so little socializing is questioned.
Rachel, nearly a psychology PhD, never applies her training to prepare for her sister’s return, such as the maid-of-honor slight.
No nits are recorded from the absent participant, who dropped out of the call.

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 01:13:37Read transcript

Winger’s missed roles are treated as casting what-ifs of their own.
The groom’s role was reportedly first offered to Paul Thomas Anderson, undermining a Sidney Poitier naming theory.
He reportedly declined because he was in post-production on There Will Be Blood.
Casting him would have changed the film in many ways, including losing the wedding song.

Sarah Paulson as the maid of honor

In the discussion (2)

Approx. transcript time · 01:17:54Read transcript

Sarah Paulson is proposed as a slightly brainier maid of honor at a good point in her career.
Her Studio 60 role is recalled, prompting a defense of that show’s first eight episodes.

Years since Ethan’s death; how long Rachel and Sidney stay married; Kym’s marriages

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 01:26:49Read transcript

How many years passed since Ethan’s death was reserved as an unanswerable question.
Rachel and Sidney are expected to stay together, based on their quiet scene together in the dark room; an alternative is an amicable split after about seven years with co-parenting.
Rachel is also called somewhat self-involved.
Kym is imagined marrying four or five times, if at all.