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Margot at the Wedding (2007)
Director: Noah Baumbach
Movie review
From Time Out New York
Steeped in a familial bitterness that would make even John Cheever uncomfortable, Noah Baumbach’s follow-up to 2005’s The Squid and the Whale retains traces of his breakthrough’s squirmworthy fixations. In fact, the awkward social fumbling of the new movie’s pubescent lad could pass as outtakes from the director’s Brooklyn-based film à clef in a pinch. But in terms of complexity, Margot at the Wedding is a leap forward. It’s one of the most emotionally mature American movies ever made about emotionally immature people.
Flighty Pauline (Leigh) is getting married to her boorish beau (Black), and after years of mutually cold shoulders, reaches out to her sister Margot (Kidman). A writer with a draconian judgmental streak, Margot brims over with passive-aggressive bile—largely directed at her teenage son (Pais)—so any hatchets will be buried in shallow graves. Things repeatedly take a turn for the worse (to paraphrase Chekhov, if you put a penchant for jailbait baby-sitters in Act I…). Any progress toward healing is accompanied by several baby steps backward.
You can spot the signature Baumbachisms in every cringe-humor exchange, yet his skills as a writer and wrangler of actors have increased tenfold. Black’s manic manchild persona is used wisely, and Leigh delivers a typically brilliant bruised-peach performance. Kidman, however, is the one who hits a career high; brittle and needy, her Margot brings out the worst in everybody and the best in a star who’s usually just called on to look glamorous or worried.
Author: David Fear
Time Out New York Issue 633: November 15–21
User reviews of this film
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- steve m said...
- Posted on Aug 12 2008 13:12 The main brilliance of this film is the huge amount of honest humanity it contains. If you are unable to see that everyday life and people are often disjointed and pointless, and sometimes even brutal, then this movie will be beyond you. The critics seem to be either utterly clueless (David, above, with his need for a "story") or desperately trying to nurture their own hipness, a quality, of course, they deride in others (Martin, above).
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- Martin Schildberg said...
- Posted on Feb 23 2008 03:09 Being a fan of mid-nineties indie cinema, I like most of Baumbach's work, excusing his utter pretentiousness at times. The script reminds me of the bad films woody allen did to emmulate bergman. The cinematography, though very nice work by Savides, seems like every Oliver Assayas film you've ever seen. The film tries to deal with these themes on a real level, but ends up being pretentious and self-important. It almost seems as if he's a hipster with his films. They copy good films badly, in the hope that the person watching it will take his version as the original. This was also evident when co-writing Life Aquatic - a failed attempt to copy a style Wilson and Anderson developed before it was "cool."
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- johnny rook said...
- Posted on Dec 15 2007 05:32 brilliant writing, and great acting. I can't wait to see more from Baumbach. This film has been misunderstood by a few critics who have their heads up their own asses.
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- David Williams said...
- Posted on Dec 07 2007 05:07 Amazing to me what critics claim is brilliant writing. This film sported some decent acting but where was the story? Disjointed and utterly pointless.
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Cast & crew
Director: Noah Baumbach
Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nicole Kidman, Jack Black, Zane Pais, Flora Cross, Halley Feiffer, Ciarán Hinds full cast
Rated: R
Duration: 92 mins
US Release: Nov 16 2007
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