Customer Reviews

Margot At The Wedding

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

There's probably not been so dark a movie comedy as "Margot At The Wedding" in a long, long time, and this could be why it flopped at the box office. It appears to be asking a lot to expect an audience to show up for a film with a lead character this narcissistic and destructive (and played by a star as big as Nicole Kidman, no less.) But you need to go into this with the proper expectations. No one is going to change or grow, at least during the running time of the movie. Remember the old Seinfeld - The Complete Series rule; no hugging, and no learning anything? Ditto in spades for "Margot." Indeed, this movie is a lot like a 90 minute episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Sixth Season with all visible remaining sentiment altogether drained. I loved it, but Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Two-Disc Special Edition) is my idea of a classic comedy. I think there are powerful emotions of love at work in "Margot" but they jostle for position with selfishness, envy, and hostility. Kind of like a real family.

This movie also wears its influences on its sleeve. Margot is supposed to be an acclaimed fiction writer of the The New Yorker [1-year subscription]-magazine variety, and you need to approach this movie as a literary artifact. If you hated reading and explicating short stories in school, you probably won't like this movie. But if you get a thrill from figuring out complicated characters; or connecting the dots between subtle plot twists and developments, then this is the movie for you. Notice the opening and closing scenes of the movie, and what Margot says about her son's sunglasses. If you like to notice details like these and pick up on a film maker's hints, you will have a good time here. I have never been that big a fan of Kidman, (except to marvel at her beauty) but she is really, really good as the awful Margot. As somebody else wrote about her character, Margot is like an emotional terrorist who tosses bombs at any available target. But you get some hints about why she is like she is from the contradictory things she says about her dead father. (Notice how she and Jennifer Jason Leigh talk about him between themselves, and what she says about him in public at a book reading.) And she is a tortured soul, as you can see from her relationship with her kindly husband (John Turturro, in what amounts to a cameo.) She may be the smartest person in the room, but she is also the unhappiest. It's nice to see Jennifer Jason Leigh again as the (relatively) sane sister. Jack Black as Malcolm does a more subdued variation of his usual character. At first you think this goofy failed musician is going to be the beacon of normality for us through these hilariously wounded people. But, without giving too much away, Malcolm has his own issues and it's interesting how Black blends his own patented zaniness with the demands of this plot (particularly in his last scene.)

I think that a lot of the people who liked The Squid and the Whale (Special Edition) (Baumbach highly-praised previous movie) were disappointed by "Margot" because it lacked the nostalgia and coming-of-age elements that were kind of like the sugar coating over the bitter taste of the earlier film. I suppose an angry, successful, gorgeous Nicole Kidman is harder to take than the defeated, schlumpy (but just as angry) Jeff Daniels in "Squid" (even though they are playing very similar characters.) I think this is one of those movies that gets overlooked when first released but will grow in reputation as time passes. It's just really, really funny and truthful in ways we don't like to think about. And if nothing else, you will count your blessings about your own family.

Noah Baumbach creates strange films, movies that are low budget in appearance (except for the sterling casts he assembles), dicey stories about dysfunctional people (and there is obviously a mirror here for seeing our own dysfunctional traits), moods that suggest the films of Ingmar Bergman shot with camera work that blurs the line of reality and fantasy, and in the end films that initiate discussion (both arguing for and against the quality of time the viewers have just spent). His are message films and while they may not entertain the mass number of filmgoers, they are an important aspect of the new American cinema.

Novelist Margot (Nicole Kidman) and her son Claude (Zane Pais, in an impressive film debut) are traveling to Margot's semi-estranged sister's wedding: hippie Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is marrying the bizarre artist wannabe Malcolm (Jack Black) in the backyard of the girl's old home somewhere in New England. The sisters have a rocky relationship, strained by family secrets that include a distant mother and strange sister and a possibly pedophilia father, and strained by Margot's success as a writer (though she has failed in her marriage to the nebulous Jim - John Turturro - and is having an affair with another writer Dick - Ciarán Hinds - whose Harvard daughter Maisy - Halley Feiffer - is an oversexed thorn in the family's eyes), and strained by Pauline's lack of direction away from her past as a 'woman of loose morals' to the discovery that she is pregnant by the loser Malcolm. The entire story takes place on the weekend of Pauline's planned wedding and everything that could possibly go wrong does. Each of the sister's idiosyncrasies and maladjustments to life come into play and the only characters who seem to be able to make sense of any of the behavior abnormalities are the sisters' children - Claude and Pauline's daughter Ingrid (Flora Cross). If there is a focal point that rises out of all this dysfunctional behavior it is the manner in which Margot and Claude are bonded as mother and son - not a perfect balance of roles but one of great tenderness and intention.

Yes, there are some strangely comic aspects to this story, dark though they may be, but the overall impression is one of trying to understand why each of these strange characters has chosen their paths in life - and that opens the forum for viewer introspection and excellent post-viewing conversation. Much of the success of this little film is due to the fine performances by Kidman, Leigh, Pais, Turturro, Hinds, and Black. It is a very strong cast able to accompany us on this often confusing journey. Grady Harp, February 08

Like a promising souffle that rises toward perfection only to deflate disastrously, Noah Baumbach's "Margot at the Wedding" never blossoms into the good film that it strives to be.

It's patchy and uneven, and intentionally so. "Such is life", Baumbach seems to be saying, "..only a muddle of wounded egos thrashing about."

The patchiness extends from the cinematography (gorgeous and crisp outdoors, but muddy and weak-colored in interior scenes) to the performances. Nicole Kidman never really convinces as the Manhattanite writer, Margot...possibly because no scene in the movie establishes the character's competence at her profession. Jack Black, as the pathetic boy/man Malcolm, hams it up as he saws away at his own masculinity.

The best, and possibly the only redeeming performance in the film, comes from Zane Pais as the adolescent boy Claude, the sweet-faced spawn of Kidman, a role that nearly seems "imported" from a foreign film. Yes, Baumbach has seen Eric Roehmer's movies...but does he emulate them, or does he just want to seem "chic"?

There's a good story in this tragic-comic farce, but Baumbach isn't interested in telling it. He just wants to lead the viewer from one quirky, neurotic episode to another. Even when seen as a critique of a certain form of icky, snobby liberalism, the movie is flabby. Woody Allen certainly would have trimmed away some of the excess, if he had directed.

Some scenes are effective, and the film does take risks. It's just that there are too many indulgences. Only the very dedicated viewer will be able to weather the tiresomeness of it all.

This film inspires a divisive reaction because it is extremely dark and cynical. I would describe this as a hybrid of a pitch black comedy and drama. It's mode is realism, but there is a touch of melodrama along the way. Everything in even the most dramatic moments is tinged with humor, and it will test the acuteness of your own sense of humor. In all aspects this is sophisticated. This is not your Larry the Cable Guy brand of humor. It is strikingly politically incorrect, almost defiantly so. The humor is in the truth of the situations.

In all aspects this is an honest portrait. Too honest for some viewers who prefer to keep their rosy-colored glasses on at all times. While one viewer will be spellbound by the intense portrayals, another viewer may be turned off by the unpleasantness. It is a matter of taste. Can you find humor in unpleasantness? Do you have the ability to laugh at things which are inherently sad but disturbingly funny? That is what this movie is about.

The performances are all equally magnificent. This is an ensemble piece with its star role in the hands of the most gifted actress of our generation, Nicole Kidman. In every scene she brings the character to startling life. Even when you think you are going to drown in her misery and her unpleasantness towards others, she does something magical: evokes compassion and empathy. All of the characters here are imperfect, rude, brutally unkind, yet none of them are 'bad' people. They are simply human beings coping with life.

I think the main theme of the movie is that we are ALL weird, cruel, and unpleasant, even though most of us try to gloss over that fact. We all lie and do things which hurt others, more or less. Those who deny it are hypocrites. To be human is to be imperfect. The viewer who can not recognize or accept that message is the viewer who will loathe this movie.

Wow, this movie was a big disappointment. I realize that movies don't always have true-to-life dialogue ("Juno," anyone?), but this went way off the rails as far as the script. It felt very "stage-y" and overwritten.

The reason I'm giving it two stars instead of one is that although I didn't like the film, I DID watch all the way to the end, just to see what happened. So in that odd way, it DID hold my interest. But overall it was not a worthwhile use of my time.

With The Squid and the Whale (Special Edition), filmmaker Noah Baumbach reinvented himself by finally discarding the comparisons to Woody Allen that followed his early films (Kicking & Screaming - Criterion Collection, Mr. Jealousy) and produced a more nuanced, mature film with acerbic wit. His follow-up, Margot at the Wedding, adheres to the same approach - chronicling the trials and tribulations of a deeply dysfunctional family.

Nicole Kidman is one of those actors that is brilliant but needs to be challenged by a strong director with a specific vision and/or material that is challenging, like working with Stanley Kubrick on Eyes Wide Shut (Unrated Two-Disc Special Edition) or Lars Von Trier on Dogville. In the same year that she appeared in two high profile, expensive commercial flops (The Invasion and The Golden Compass), she made Margot at the Wedding, a much more interesting character piece. With Margot, she gets to create a wonderfully complex character that looks down on those around her because she feels that they are intellectually inferior to her.

Jennifer Jason Leigh turns in another rock solid performance as a smart, free-spirited person trying to reconnect with her estranged sibling only to realize why they haven't spoken for years in the first place - Margot is mean-spirited. Jack Black is fascinatingly cast against type as a frustrated artist. He doesn't resort to his usual shtick, effortlessly mixing comedy and drama in a realistic way. It's great to see him build on the good work he did in Peter Jackson's King Kong - Extended Cut (Three-Disc Deluxe Edition) and The Holiday.

Margot at the Wedding is the anti-feelgood film, populated with unlikable people who are cruel to each other as only family members can. There are many moments of humour, most of which appear in the first half of the film, but eventually the stretches of cruelty that the characters inflict on each other dominate and the film swerves into a bitter, misanthropic tailspin from which it never recovers. The problem with Margot at the Wedding is that the delicate balance he maintained in the first half is disrupted in such a way that any good will we had to any of these characters is long gone by the end credits.

"A Conversation with Noah Baumbach and Jennifer Jason Leigh." The two are married in real life and talk about working with Nicole Kidman, praising her skill as an actress. They also discuss how they approached shooting the film - with long takes. Baumbach talks about why he cast Jack Black and she praises the actor's openness.

Also included are two trailers for the film.

I was deeply moved by this movie. It really gets under the skin. Whoever comes from a dysfuncional family him/herself will recognize the screwd communication which lacks in ground and wholesome love. Actually I felt very grateful towards the people behind it, for being right on the sore spot. From there it is only one way to go and that is towards greater awareness in yourself as well as in your relations with other people.
Thank you!

Full of intimacy and charm, Margot At The Wedding is the story of two estranged sisters-Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh-reuniting on the eve of Lee's down scale wedding to Jack Black.

From the beginning, Margot's (Kidman) motives for attending her sister's wedding are suspect. She pretends to be supportive, but divulges her sister's pregnancy secret to her 11 year old son in one of their talks that sound more like husband and wife conversations rather than mother and son. Margot's run away from her husband to be with an old university lover who just happens to live near her sister, and she's scheduled a talk at a local book store to promote her work. There's also the underlying suspicion that Margot may just be around to cull her family's pain to fill a few more pages in her writer's notebook.

I've read the negative reviews here and I'll concede that this is a heady movie. Margot is intelligent and caustic. If you think Annie Hall was irritating, you'll find even fewer in-roads into Margot's character. Margot is vulnerable for five seconds in this film-when she divulges her plans to move near her lover-which makes the ending of the film even more endearing. I don't agree with the reviews that commented "people don't talk this way" because well, ummm, my family does. I thought this was an intelligent and well written script.

Jennifer Jason Leigh's character tells Margot's son that "it's hard to find people in the world you love as much as your family". This family suffers from some dysfunction but they also are blessed with having the kind of relationships that are so intimate they're soul changing. I think the director and writer did a wonderful job of capturing this family relationship. But I loved Annie Hall too. Margot At The Wedding may be an acquired taste for some and others may never get it, but I really loved this film.

Film about two sisters who after years of estrangement finally get together for the wedding occasion. Margot, the older sister, writer who has marital difficulties and is too emotionally attached to her son is causing all sorts of tensions within the family. She is just too self indulgent and self-absorbed to truly care about anyone. She is self righteous to the point where she alienates everyone around her, even her lover. Her relationship with her son is not the mother-son relationship. It is almost as if Margot is trying to be his friend instead of his mother. We do not know why Margot and her sister are such damaged goods and the film does not touch up on that. But Margot is self medicating and we know her wounds are deep. She cannot imagine any more and the source of her "fiction" writing is her sole experience with her family that she shares with her audience. Film has many funny moments and we are constantly in awe on how people educated and seemingly well off can be so mean and hurtful to each other. It is a kind of movie that does not have a real ending. But then again, madness itself never ends. If anything, it only escalates from bad to worse. Wonderful cast.

This film is like a scab that it's characters can't stop picking at until they've reached the raw material beneath the surface. That said, it's tough to watch -- the dialogue is brutal, when not awkwardly funny; it's characters are completely unlikeable, and even the lighting is drab. The effect is similar to a hangover -- sure, there was some fun along the way, especially watching Nicole Kidman sink her teeth into the role, but all I can think about now is how crappy I feel. (5/10)