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Margot at the Wedding
2008
Margot and her son Claude decide to visit her sister Pauline after she announces that she is getting married to less-than-impressive Malcolm. In short order, the storm the sisters create leaves behind a a mess of thrashed relationships and exposed family secrets. Read more
| Starring | Zane Pais, Susan Blackwell, Nicole Kidman, Jack Black |
|---|---|
| Director | Noah Baumbach |
| Genres | Comedy, Drama |
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Margot at the Wedding
Margot and her son Claude decide to visit her sister Pauline after she announces that she is getting married to less-than-impressive Malcolm. In short order, the storm the sisters create leaves behind a a mess of thrashed relationships and exposed family secrets.
| Starring | Zane Pais, Susan Blackwell, Nicole Kidman, Jack Black, Flora Cross, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Seth Barrish |
|---|---|
| Director | Noah Baumbach |
| Studio | PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 32 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Comedy, Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 14 Jul 2008 Production year: 2008 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews
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In 2005, Noah Baumbach wrote and directed The Squid and the Whale, a peep-through-the-fingers account of growing... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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57 out of 57 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Margot at the Wedding
Rather than lightening up after the caustic The Squid and the Whale writer/director Noah Baumbach has gone the other way, getting even darker with this tale of two deeply dysfunctional sisters; Margot (Kidman) and Pauline (Leigh) reuniting for the week of Pauline’s wedding to Malcolm (Black).
Noah Baumbach can certainly write, but he’s no visual stylist. Margot at the Wedding is a flat, dull, ugly looking film, it’s shot in greys and browns and often looks as dead as the tree that Margot climbs in one scene. Add this to the fact that almost all of the characters, even those who seem at first to be decent, end up being hateful and often malevolent and it’s easy to see why a lot of critics reacted strongly against this film. It’s tough to warm to, and that’s deliberate.
Margot is one of the most foul protagonists put on film in a long time; a nasty hateful harridan with barely a redeeming feature, she’s vile to everyone around her, particularly her estranged sister, though she still refers to Pauline as ‘my best friend’. It’s a pretty brave performance on the part of Nicole Kidman, as it goes out of the way to alienate the audience, but it’s also one of Kidman’s best performances in a long time.
Among the rest of the cast Jack Black shows dramatic chops as Malcolm, while also bringing some welcome, if understated, comedy to the table and, odd a couple as they make, there’s a genuine connection between him and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Baumbach also prves again that he’s adept at getting strong performances from young actors, drawing nice turns from Zane Pais as Margot’s son and, in a smaller part Flora Cross as Pauline’s daughter.
It would be easy to lay charges of nepotism at Baumbach’s door for casting his wife as Pauline, but then his wife is Jennifer Jason Leigh, and when you get a chance to cast an actor that good you grab it. Watching her play against Kidman is an object lesson in the difference between a good actor and a great one. Strong as Kidman is she’s always Nicole Kidman, playing Margot, you can always hear the wheels turn. With Leigh though the actress simply isn’t there, she goes away, leaving only Pauline. It’s one of the most normal roles Leigh has played and she’s absolutely wonderful in it, making Pauline a living breathing person, seemingly effortlessly.
As good as the acting is, though, and as sharply observed as Baumbach’s screenplay seems it’s often hard to care about what’s happening, certainly to Margot. The people in this movie, besides Pauline, who’s mostly guilty of being naïve, are just so awful to one another that whenever something bad happens to one of them you simply shrug. That’s a problem because, in a piece that is so character driven, you have to be able to care, and as the credits roll you just won’t. -
Most recent members' review
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13 out of 13 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Squit follows Squid
I was looking forward to watching this film. Having read the reviews I thought that the study of the characters would be interesting at least.
I was wrong!
In my opinion, the director, Noah Baumbach, is trying to develop characters & situations he neither knows or understands about - although he thinks he does. I have no problem with the characters being off the wall, many good films have far worse ones, but Margot at the Wedding has little to recommend it despite Nicole Kidman playing the lead.
This film is a pile of pretentious, pseudo-intellectual claptrap.
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- MariElaina from Bury St. Edmunds
- Posted 18 Jul 2008 19:08
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News and features
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Margot at the Wedding
- 21 Feb 2008
No disrespect to the four nominees for Best Actress this year, it wasn't their fault, but they highlighted a real gender gap in what was, by common consent, a good year for American movies. The best films were all about the men, with the partial exceptions of the British production Atonement and two independents written and directed by women, Away from Her and The Savages. Strange, then, that the Academy should have overlooked an Oscar-worthy performance by one of the biggest movie stars in... Read more
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