Margot at the Wedding
Margot at the Wedding is, superficially, a story about Margot (Nicole Kidman) who is attending the wedding of her sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to a man Margot does not think is good enough (Jack Black). The sisters have been estranged, and the movie leads me to believe that it is because Margot herself is bat-guano insane. Margot runs about, diagnosing everyone and exchanging casual cruelties with Pauline. Margot seems disproportionally hostile in every situation, and while we get that these girls have an unhappy history, we never get the payoff of learning any actual history. Certainly in real life we don’t describe our shared memories with our family for the benefit of outside listeners, but that is why you have an outside present in the scene to advocate for the audience’s understanding. Has Margot always been like this, or is she just like this around Pauline, or is she acting out in response to Jack Black?
These sisters burst into laughter talking about the rape of a third sister; it’s hard to get a handle on qualities to make us pity or empathize with either of them. Kidman and Leigh are doing nothing wrong – they are acting their hearts out and have the natural chemistry of lifelong tormenters. Somehow, more things in this movie made me throw up my hands in frustration than any other movie this year (and that is saying something!). Jack Black shines as a regular dude who weathers the storm of these crazy sisters and their oddly terrifying neighbors. In their yard, they are at a Cape Cod in the Hamptons. Over the fence, it’s Cahulawassee River inbred hills having eyes. Black’s performance shows that he doesn’t always have to be that frenetic guy. Perhaps he shouldn’t have made Kung Fu Panda, but hopefully this film will break him through to greater things.
Is writer/director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) trying to craft a movie that is as neurotic and unfathomable (and unlikable) as its leads? Mission accomplished. The motivations are confusing and mercurial, events occur out of left field (not even in service of the plot) such as a plants soiling and the apparent roasting of a dog. Arguments boil up to drive the plot, and cool just as pointlessly. A hanger-on around the house is driven away just as we find out who she is. Margot has a whole side plot with Ciaran Hinds and John Turturro which muddy the murk further.
I prefer to think that I am not a stupid person. This movie utterly eluded me in purpose and design. My companion’s requested comment: “Hands spread, I am silent.” I dredged some interesting observational tidbits up (like Margot always diagnosing but never treating) but then they led to no grander purpose. It’s apparent that Margot has borderline personality disorder, but will that devalue her feelings about her sister’s wedding? We have no reason to care or celebrate or worry about this marriage because it is merely an excuse for these women to get together and be horrible to each other and their kids. Margot’s son Claude (Zane Pais) has long hair, full lips, baby skin, and a high voice, and it was not terribly evident for some time that he was a boy. Margot’s doing or just a perfect storm of messy script and inattentive casting and makeup? Pais provides a touchstone of sanity in this mess, but mostly serves as a conduit for his mother’s loony behavior and peeps and the crazy neighbors.
I really didn’t like it at all. Catch it on HBO so you can see it uncensored if you want to see some acting outside a script and director’s ability to render it unpalatable. I quote a review by Roger Ebert of another movie that is apt here: “It is possible to imagine this story being told in a good film, but that would involve a different screenplay.”
MPAA Rating R-sexual content and language
Release date 11/16/07 limited
Time in minutes 92
Director Noah Baumbach
Studio Paramount Vantage
