Margot at the Wedding (2007) User Reviews (133)

Not a nice film, but more worthwhile than most of the trash at cinemas. One to make you think, perhaps.

[Chris_Docker · 7/10 · 26 February 2008]

I assume you are normal. Whatever that is. Would you ever stop to question that?

Margot is a fish out of water. She would be 'normal' back home. Her pond is Manhattan. Intellectuals. 'Nice' people. Successful. Words of several syllables that easily slip into popular psychobabble - but in an acceptable sort of way. Social affirmation obscures our faults. The world after all is as we, and our friends, understand it to be. A self-selecting reality.

For Margot's sister Pauline, the self-selecting, self-affirming, 'normality' is different. She lives in the countryside. Fulfilment would be a down-to-earth lifestyle with someone who thinks she's great. That man in her life, played by Jack Black, is a very ordinary sort. He doesn't even have a proper job. But they seem content. They will marry under the family tree. In the garden.

As two worlds collide, flaws that could have been overlooked come nastily to the surface. Margot can only return Pauline's sisterly love in a cold, cerebral way. She becomes easy to dislike. We soon doubt her sincerity. Pauline looks more and more pathetic against her accomplished sibling. She becomes easy to feel sorry for. Blood is thicker than water. But it exerts unbearable strain.

In best scenarios, romantic comedies and feelgood movies, love always triumphs over dysfunctionality. If only life was so reliable. With the uplifting coup of family bonds in such films as Little Miss Sunshine or The Darjeeling Ltd. Those movies provided us with reassuring escapism. And I admit they were more satisfying than the rather bleak Margot at the Wedding. But it is this film that gives such niggling pause for thought.

It is easy for box office comedy to turn on family difference that ultimately heals. But it is the less than fairytale endings that we have to deal with in real life. Not funny. Maybe just a bit painful. Like estranged family. Hurts that don't heal in a neat two hours of celluloid.

Margot at the Wedding is not a great movie. Nor a comfortable one. It looks at the fragility of one's persona - or definition of normality - that we use to interact with society. With society's forgiving and less forgiving parts. Parts that are perhaps within our own families. But it does encourage you to think. And there are too few movies out just now that do that.

Neurotic chaos in the Hamptons

[Chris Knipp · 7/10 · 5 October 2007]

Baumbach was nominated for an Oscar for Best Screenplay for his amusing, spot-on study of a New York literary intellectual family in crisis, 'The Squid and the Whale.' As befits one who received accolades and some little box office success, he has moved forward with similar themes and a better budget, and was able to enlist not only several more well-known actors but a famous cinematographer, Harris Savides, and a renowned costume designer, Ann Roth. Baumbach has also moved along in time, as it were. If 'The Squid and the Whale' was a parental breakup mostly considered from the viewpoint of a teenage boy, this family analysis has more of an adult sibling focus--though there's a boy on hand who's important. More limited in its time-span than 'Squid,' 'Margot' is more complex in its specifics and in its conversational delineation of neurotics at play. Just about every scene is a relationship meltdown. It's a wonder nobody comes to violence. In fact one character does get kicked in the chest, and a big tree falls down, doing some damage.

Baumbach himself may understand what all this is about, but the choppily edited and shot piece has too little dramatic structure (despite being very much like a play) to go anywhere or make much overall sense. Despite good buzz from some quarters and urban (especially New York) fans, the young director may lose with 'Margot' a sizable slice of the credibility he gained with 'Squid.'

Pauline (Baumbach's wife, Jennifer Jason Leigh), who lives on the family house on an island, is about to be married, for the second time, to out of work artist Malcolm (Jack Black). Her sister Margot (Nicole Kidman) comes with her young adolescent son Claude (Zane Pais). Ingrid (Flora Cross), Pauline's daughter, is there, and a playmate for Claude. Margot is a well-known short-story writer, and it turns out she's scheduled for a reading at a local bookstore with a former flame, Dick (Ciaran Hinds), whom she seems to want to get together with again. Dick's sexy daughter Maisy (Halley Feiffer) is also on hand. Margot has told her husband Jim (John Turturro) not come for the wedding (though briefly he does appear).

Pauline and Margot haven't been getting on well for years, but they both approach this occasion with the misguided assumption that they're nonetheless still each other's best friends and that things are going to be rich and consoling.

But as soon as the good-looking and accomplished, if thoroughly neurotic Margot lays eyes on the fat layabout Malcolm, she goes to work on Pauline to cancel the wedding--even though Pauline reveals she's pregnant. There is a family of nasty neighbors, the Voglers, who want the big tree in the backyard to come down. Its roots are spreading to their property, it's rotting, and it's poisoning their plants, they say.

Margot wants Claude to become more independent, but neither of them is ready for that yet. Nobody seems to be ready for anything, relationship-wise. This is about the only thing that clearly emerges.

One of the problems is in the conception of the main characters. This is not the anguished, edgy Leigh we've often seen in the past but a mellow woman, and despite lack of accomplishment and temper tantrums (which he credibly argues are justified in this crazy situation) Malcolm may have been a sweet guy who clicks very well with Pauline. Margot seems to make trouble for everybody, beginning wit her son. But since she's the most accomplished family member, it's a bit hard to know how to take her. It's a bit hard to know how to take anybody. Complex characters are fine, but nobody in this piece is going in a consistent direction. And this is equally true of the action. Was the wedding meant to have a meltdown before it ever happened?

This is a slice of life in more ways than one. Scenes are constantly cut off and linked to the next by jump cuts, an effect meant to be vérité and sophisticated that tends at times merely to look sloppy. Though Baumbach says he got exactly the look he wanted, it's surprising that the Savides of 'Elephant' and 'Zodiac' would give us so many shots that are seriously under-lit. Again, the effect hovers between original and amateurish.

All this is a shame, because all the actors do great work. The young newcomer who plays Margot's son Claude, Zane Pais, is indeed miraculously natural and believable. Leigh and Kidman do some of their best work, and Jack Black has perfect pitch in every line. There's no doubt that weeks of careful rehearsals on the set, in the house, helped the cast work so well together, and Baumbach knew what he wanted. But it reads as a series of vignettes rather than a film.

Weak script

[gbill-74877 · 5/10 · 23 June 2023]

A film that had promise, with lots of stars in its cast (Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Black) and the premise of a dysfunctional pair of sisters coming together for one's low-key wedding. How adult siblings sometimes act around one another, with actions colored by grievances stemming back to childhood, is certainly fertile ground for universal emotions. Unfortunately this one gets tedious as it goes along, with the characters devolving into caricatures lacking realism. I didn't mind so much that the story meandered, I mean that's how life is after all, but I think the film thought it was deeper than it was. Oh, it tries hard, with bizarre nextdoor neighbors, the whiff of an underage relationship with the babysitter, hints of childhood trauma, etc, but it's all without substance and nothing sticks. It's a shame, because with a better script, this could have been a gem.

Some quotes might illustrate my point: "I think Becky got it the worst." "Did she ever. Raped by the horse-trainer." (hysterical, unexplained laughter ensues)

"Did she poop in her pants?" "It happens to everyone, not just babies. It'll happen to you too, someday."

"I masturbated last night. While everyone was asleep, I went into the bathroom and did it." "You don't need to tell me that, sweetie."

One Of The Darkest Dysfunctional Family Comedies

[Chrysanthepop · 30 January 2009]

Baumbach's 'Margot At The Wedding', in the centre, tells the story of a writer who reunites with her sister at her 'wedding'. Margot is a neurotic borderliner who would go around picking flaws at and diagnosing other people to avoid her own issues. She is so afraid of loss that she keeps her son dependent on her but at the same time she keeps everyone at a distance. Her sister Pauline, also a borderliner, is pretty much an extension of her EXCEPT that she tries to stay optimistic and is trying to heal and dealing with her own issues. Their awkward reunion creates a clash of their personalities, reveals clues of some disturbing family history and results in chaos.

Baumbach's execution is raw and simplistic. The minimal use of music, slightly washed out colours, unpolished visuals and hand-held camera-work allows the audience to be involved in the characters' lives as voyeurs. Either the viewer is peeking into the private moments of the sisters or he/she is there as a silent observer. Baumbach's writing is terrific. Even though the dialogues are of few words, they speak volumes and go back to years of experience. The characters are superbly written. Even though you resent them at some point or even laugh at them, you care about them throughout. In the dialogues between the sisters, Baumbach hints some dark underlying themes such as incest, rape, abuse, over-dependence, dysfunctional relationships and abandonment. He does not fully explore them but cleverly suggests them allowing the viewer to ponder. There are also plenty of subtle themes that are introduced.

Nicole Kidman, once again, delivers an excellent performance. She proves that she can handle any complex role and this is why she is among the best. Jennifer Jason Leigh is equally stupendous as Pauline. Watching Margot and Pauline really felt like watching two real sisters who have had a chaotic unsettling family history. Both Kidman and Jason Leigh display raw emotions that move the viewer. Jack Black too is great as Malcolm. Zane Pais and Flora Cross are good and John Torturro is brilliant.

'Margot At The Wedding' is one of the darkest comedies that centre around a dysfunctional family. It's disturbing but also funny and keeps you pondering. It might not appeal to all but there are some of us who can appreciate this kind of movie.

A really, really dysfunctional family

[Red-125 · 7/10 · 5 January 2008]

Margot at the Wedding (2007), was written and directed by Noah Baumbach. The family in this film makes the family in Baumbach's "Squid and the Whale" look like the the Waltons. They are very strange people.

Margot (Nicole Kidman) and her sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) come together before Pauline's marriage to Malcolm (Jack Black). The plot outline refers to Malcolm as "less than impressive." I would agree, although you could make the case that even though he's a loser, he's a lovable loser. (I don't see it, but maybe Pauline does.)

Margot is a destructive person. She manages to drag everyone down to her depressed level, especially her son Claude and her sister Pauline. (Claude has problems of his own, but they aren't helped by his mother, who is in turn loving and supportive and then hostile and destructive.)

Suspension of disbelief is demanded here. Pauline and Margot have a long talk about how they are no longer physically desirable, and so they'll have to settle for any man that will have them. Has Baumbach looked at Nicole Kidman? I know he's looked at Jennifer Jason Leigh, because she's his wife. Pauline and Margot may have to settle for less-than-ideal men, but not on the basis of their unattractiveness. (Neurosis, yes; unattractiveness, no.)

We saw this movie in a theater, but it should work well on DVD. It's worth seeing if you enjoy films about pathological relationships. The acting was solid, and the camera work was interesting. Just don't expect Beaver Cleaver and his family.

Watching the neighbors through the fence...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 1 March 2008]

Group of erratic, confounding and humorously twisted family members are reunited at a prospective wedding in Long Island, with the estranged Margot (Nicole Kidman) behaving as sort of the ringleader to the inner-chaos (she's not necessarily a reminder of old hurts, but she brings them up anyway, as if it's her duty). Writer-director Noah Baumbach's style is unlike anyone else's in the movies right now; as both a writer and a director, he's amazingly compatible working both sides of his talent (his dialogue is the music while his direction--and the nimble editing--provides the rhythm). Baumbach allows his characters to tease and torment each other with quiet, yet unsubtle prodding, and the free-flowing scenes play out beautifully, just like music. If there is a downside to this style, it's that Baumbach can often be too knowing, and when a line or a performance is too clever it can appear forced. Jack Black was a wonderful choice as unemployed Malcolm, the slacker-bridegroom who finds swimming pools disgusting and the thought of being famous too threatening because of the rejection involved; however, Black is allowed too much time to find the humor in his slovenly character. He's fine when he's made out to be the dupe or the target of girlfriend Jennifer Jason Leigh's frustrations, but when he tries to conform to Baumbach's image of Malcolm as an enraged clown, the affectation shows and we lose both the substance and the irony of this man (we get more than we need--and more than we already perceive to be there). Baumbach is also perhaps too brazen staging talks of a sexual nature between adults and children; this works when the subject matter is touched on by the younger people only, but Margot's relationship with her pubescent son (which Margot already accepts is too entwined) skirts uncomfortable parameters which might be more amusing if the characters on-screen laughed a little bit, too. The movie is brittle, though it has a great, wounded heart and very perceptive ears for passive-aggressive arguments and misunderstandings. This family can't get over their neuroses because they don't see themselves as neurotic--only each other, and the world. It's summed up nicely in a scene with Margot and her gift-bearing husband when she tells him, "I hate getting a present that I already have. It makes me feel like you don't really know me." **1/2 from ****

Peek into the life of a family with problems

[seawalker · 7/10 · 7 March 2008]

"Margot At The Wedding" is one of those small scale, low budget films that turn up now and again to give A-listers, and near A-listers, the chance to do some naturalistic performing. These films are always welcome. I have said it before and I will say it again. The only films that really matter are films about people, in whatever situation they find themselves.

In "Margot At The Wedding" we have Nicole Kidman acting her socks off, Jennifer Jason Leigh demonstrating what a fine and underused talent she is and Jack Black playing a more vulnerable variation on his arrogant loser persona. I was surprised by Jack Black. I like some of his comedies as much as the next guy, but "Margot At The Wedding" is not his normal oeuvre at all, and after an initial thought of 'Jack Black? No way!', I thought he was effective.

"Margot At The Wedding" is a good film, and really kind of enjoyable, even if the whole dysfunctional family thing has been done a million times before. It is as funny as it is dramatic, with secrets revealed, adults behaving badly and children constantly puzzled by the grown ups that are supposed to be setting them a good example. It is a peek into the life of a family with problems.

Just like your family.

tedious and unpleasant

[rfrench815 · 1/10 · 3 April 2008]

I agree with Graham Clarke

"Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black all...turn in great performances. There's no doubt about that. The thing is when all is said and done, watching dysfunction families is not necessarily riveting viewing. At some point you ask yourself, do I really need to see this? "Margot at the Wedding" leaves you with very little other than the performances. Watching people act out is not art. There really has to be more than this."

I found it a time waster, and did not really want to try to "psychoanalyze "the characters' crazy emotional gyrations.

The Margot Show

[moutonbear25 · 8/10 · 8 December 2007]

What does it say about your wedding when your estranged sister's attendance is a bigger event than the wedding itself? I mean, it's right there in the title of Noah Baumbach's dysfunctional family disaster movie. It isn't called "The Wedding" or "Malcolm and Pauline Get Married". No, it's called MARGOT AT THE WEDDING. If your sister at your wedding causes that big a stir, perhaps the invitation would have been better lost in the mail. Still, despite her better judgment and in the interest of progress and healing, Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) does invite the sister she still refers to as her closest friend after years of not speaking, to her intimate affair. It is clear her idea was not her best from the moment Margot (Nicole Kidman) steps off the boat and on to the New England shore. Pauline sends her fiancé, Malcolm (Jack Black), to pick Margot and her eldest son, Claude (Zane), up from the ferry. She claims to be making last minute arrangements back at the house but I suspect it was she and not the house who was not quite ready to receive. Then, when the two are finally face to face, standing in front of the house they grew up in, they smile and make pleasantries but fidget hesitatingly before actually embracing. That awkward moment grows into a whirlwind of deep-seeded pain before long and suddenly rain on the blessed day is hardly the biggest worry for the bride-to-be.

Baumbach scored last time out with his Oscar-nominated THE SQUID AND THE WHALE. He was lauded for his sensitive and honest tale of divorce and how it affects the entire family unit. With MARGOT AT THE WEDDING, he solidifies his reputation for creating believable family ties based on dependence, dysfunction and subtle admiration. Watching the sisters as they sit around the house catching up is voyeuristic as we are often privy to conversations that feel as though they were not meant to be heard. As the sisters flip through old records in their even older house, Baumbach writes decades of experiences into his characters and we, like Malcolm, are latecomers to this dinner party. Director of photography, Harris, draws us even closer to this inner circle by shooting mostly hand-held footage in natural lighting and with older lenses. The resulting tone is dark and grainy but nostalgic and rich with history at the same time. At times, we are the quiet cousin who says nothing but stands in the corner with a camera and follows the drama from room to room. It isn't long before we learn how to interpret the vernacular of this particular family and we find ourselves laughing along inappropriately at the expense of whomever Margot is lovingly ridiculing at the moment. As we laugh though, we care as well.

Kidman and Leigh (Baumbach's wife) are both marvelous as they walk the very tightly wound lines of their borderline personalities. Baumbach guides their performances into textured characters that seem natural as sisters and strongly rooted as multifaceted people who struggle to be themselves when in the presence of the other. They even possess archetypal qualities without coming across as contrived. Margot is the master of deflection. She is constantly doling out psychological diagnoses to those around her to avoid any fingers pointing back her way. It never dawns on her that as a writer, she actually has no formal foundation to base her opinions on. She cannot understand why Pauline would settle for Malcolm; she picks at Claude to keep him closer; she even attacks her husband (John Turturro) for his good nature because it just makes her feel like a bad person. She is a fatalist to Pauline's hopeful but defeated optimist. Pauline is damaged but wants to heal and has done so much more than she gives herself credit for. She teeters back and forth between making sneaky, subtle jabs at her sister, habits from her youth, and building new connections so that she can have the sister she always wanted instead of the one she has always had. Only, in the house that Baumbach built, the answer to whether people can ever truly change is not the least bit clear.

Family, even the best examples, can be tricky to negotiate. Spending any extended period of time with the people who both influenced you and hurt you the most in your life can be exhausting. That said, MARGOT AT THE WEDDING can be no less trying. There are those who revel in watching others with deeper dysfunction then their own. It helps them to feel that their lives are not nearly as bad as they thought. There are also others who feel they have enough to juggle already with potentially damaging weddings of their own to survive coming up fast. Why then immerse yourself in a tornado of neuroses and painful memories that are not even your own? Truthfully, you don't have to. Along those lines, Pauline never needed to invite her sister to her wedding either. Only if she hadn't, she would have missed out on everything the experience taught her about herself and the potential for progress. This is the genuine beauty of Baumbach's work. He shares so intensely and personally that he inevitably forces the viewer to deal with their own inner-Margot.

At times interesting but ultimately unsatisfying

[cherold · 6/10 · 12 September 2015]

This little family drama starts when estranged siblings come together for a wedding.

It's Jennifer Jason Leigh's wedding, but the movie centers on her narcissistic sister Nicole Kidman, who spends the movie quietly and skillfully tearing down everyone around her, including her own child, and the trying to undo the damage with a half-hearted compliment. She is an interesting character who knows she's often cruel and uncaring but simply blames other people for making her realize it.

Not much happens in the film, which is all about small moments and Kidman's small-scale destruction. The most interesting moments are those in which Kidman confronts her limitations and flaws, as in the tree- climbing scene or the interview. Jack Black is also effective as the schlub JJL is marrying.

I love JJL, but she feels a little overshadowed here. That's understandable, as she plays a relatively normal character.

While there were good scenes, the movie never grabbed me, and the ending left me simply wondering why Baumbach had bothered to make this. It all feels so ultimately pointless.

Watching people act out is not necessarily art

[grahamclarke · 4/10 · 10 February 2008]

While I was less enthusiastic about "The Squid and the Whale" than most, it clearly had it merits. In particular director Noah Baumbach obviously worked extremely well with his actors, drawing fine performances from all. Its not surprising that actors took note of this new talent on the block. To their credit, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black all worked for way below their usual fees, simply to do this movie with Baumbach.

All three turn in great performances. There's no doubt about that. The thing is when all is said and done, watching dysfunctional families is not necessarily riveting viewing. At some point you ask yourself, do I really need to see this? "Margot at the Wedding" leaves you with very little other than the performances.

Watching people act out is not art. There really has to be more than this.

One of the darkest, most complex films I've seen in a while

[xlr884 · 10/10 · 5 September 2007]

I just saw Margot at the Wedding at the Telluride Film Festival. My first reaction was that I liked it, but not as much as The Squid and the Whale. My friends and I started talking about it afterwards though and we ended up staying up nearly all night talking about it. It has some funny moments but it is DEFINITELY not a true comedy. It is one of darkest films I've seen in a while. It seems like a simple story but the more you think about it, the more you realize is there. There is definitely a Bergmaninfluence here, especially from Persona, which Noah Baumbach confirmed when I talked to him at the festival. Nicole Kidman's and Jennifer Jason Leigh's characters are sisters, but there came a point where they almost seemed to be extensions of the exact same character. The characters inhabit a very bizarre world filled with clues about doubles, pedophilia, possibly incest, and more. Baumbach didn't necessarily agree with everything I and some other students said about some of the film's meanings, but he did acknowledge that he was glad we were making our own interpretations and that any interpretation was legit. Overall the more I think about this movie and discuss it with my friends, the more I admire it for its darkness and depth. The script is really sharp with many subtle references and the performances are all very impressive. Just keep an open mind and discuss it afterwards to really get to the bottom of some of the film's rich complexities. See it!

a glimpse at a perpetually torn and frayed family; Bergman or Rohmer lite

[Quinoa1984 · 6/10 · 24 November 2007]

Margot at the Wedding is an admirable but not wholly successful attempt at writer/director Noah Bambach to go another step further following the Squid and the Whale. Where that film had the courage of convictions on the part of Baumbach, making a very personal tragic-comedy where the warts-and-all characters were part of a fully-formed narrative, Margot at the Wedding skips around the narrative, and doesn't have the kind of flow that made such works that Baumbach obviously loves by the masters of intense character studies of intellectual anxieties in love and the mind- Bergman and Rohmer and maybe Cassavetes- so potent. A lot of the time Baumbach has his actors right in the pit ready for a really harsh moment of lacerating drama, he suddenly skips the narrative off to a moment of oddball humor (I know 'oddball' is a criticism tossed around often, but what to call it when during a scene with a heated argument, it suddenly has to end when, oh-no, the mother's daughter is lying underneath a tree that is about to fall down after her soon-to-be-step father was cutting down and will also fall on the tent that... nevermind).

Point is, Margot at the Wedding, for all of its strengths in casting, can't quite carry the music despite knowing the words. It's the kind of work too that at 91 minutes feels much too brief; why shortchange some potentially interesting individuals by cutting off some more time spent squarely with Margot and her sister Paulette and their kids and Jack Black's character to put in some weird unnerving scenes with a Deliverance recast of neighbors? Those creepy folks, who at separate times go all uppity over aforementioned tree and for Margot snooping in on their house at them cutting up a pig, serve far less purpose for what is really potent and powerful in the picture. And what is also lacking is some context for the actors to work with; Kidman has her moments of interest here as a woman who is, as becomes all the more apparent as her story goes along, on the succinct verge of mental breakdown; Leigh is solid as always, even when she only shows her best in the last act while the story starts to collapse; and Black is strangely affecting here, trading between his 'shtick' persona of cynically detached heavy and a very sad individual (and possibly the most sympathetic, save for the kids).

What happens then is something that is both curious and infuriating; we're given some snapshots of a family in a perpetual downward spiral, where we're also given at the very end the overbearing sensation (less subtle notion) that bad things will continue on. Sometimes there are some moments that really caught me well- Margot climbing a tree is one, and it's a scene shot and edited for perfect impact, and there's also a strangely suggestive scene with Margot and her son sleeping in the same bed, of the complexity of their love/hate relationship- but they were too far and in-between. My complaints are harsh, but it's out of purely constructive critical thinking: Baumbach is a talented writer, as evidenced with Squid and the Whale as well as co-writer for Wes Anderson in the past. He can shoot for the moon if he wants to as a dramatist, as there is enough proof of that not only in 'Squid' but even in spurts in Margot. But he has not made it yet, as it leaves itself as an exercise, a kind of first-draft of a possibly much better script that instead got made into what's here.

This all being said, I was still glad I saw it, and glad that there are still attempts, strivings for a form of harsh truth regarding creative persons who can't connect with one another. It's always worth seeing a film like this, even if it doesn't work all the way.

A Repugnant Film

[evanston_dad · 1/10 · 27 February 2008]

A typical conversation from "Margot at the Wedding" might go something like this:

"You were always so pretty." "WERE pretty? Does that mean you don't think I'm pretty anymore?" "Why are you responding with all of this passive aggressive hostility? I was just trying to pay you a compliment." "You know, I was noticing earlier today that you have really bad body odor. Does that ever bother you?" "You're such a bitch."

And that's it. Scene after scene of dialogue like this, spoken by one unlikable character to another unlikable character, until you feel like the only possible way for the movie to end satisfactorily is for all of the characters to be impaled on something very sharp and preferably jagged.

Noah Baumbach made an auspicious debut with "The Squid and the Whale," but with "Margot at the Wedding" he makes the mistake of assuming that one person's morbid neuroses are inherently interesting to another. We don't learn anything about these characters, we don't care about them, and we don't like them. You tell me -- do you want to sit through 90 minutes of that?

Grade: F

A mature, very dark drama, mismarketed and misunderstood

[Benedict_Cumberbatch · 2 March 2008]

First of all: "Margot at the Wedding" is not a comedy or a chick flick, as the distributors wanted you to believe - hence, the movie being a major box-office flop/critical failure. Noah Baumbach's follow-up to his endearing, critically acclaimed "The Squid and the Whale", is just as good as his previous film, but much darker and mature.

Margot (Nicole Kidman, in her first good film since "Dogville" - this is her comeback, too bad most people didn't get it) and her son Claude (Zane Pais) go visit Margot's estranged sister, Pauline (the always wonderful Jennifer Jason Leigh), who's about to marry a not very distinctive type (Jack Black, okay for the first half of the movie, but shows no drama skills at a pivotal scene - his performance being the only major letdown in the movie for me). It won't be an easy time for any of them. Baumbach could've done something lighter and gotten another critics' fave like "Whale", but thank God for real auteurs, he did something different, and succeeded on it (at least, in my books!). "Margot at the Wedding" is, right from the title, a homage to Éric Rohmer ("Pauline at the Beach" - by the way, Baumbach's movie was entitled "Nicole at the Beach", but they had to change the title when Kidman was cast), with similarities to Bergman ("Persona", in particular) and Woody Allen's more serious films ("September", for instance, which were already inspired by Bergman). Baumbach's writing is fantastic, very quotable and personal, and the cast got the idea and did a remarkable job (except for Black). A misunderstood gem. 9/10.

Cinema Omnivore - Margot at the Wedding (2007) 5.5/10

[lasttimeisaw · 6/10 · 24 November 2021]

"The game of one-upmanship is furtively dealt underneath the surface, Margot's conceit is undermined by a crumbling marriage with Jim (Turturro) and her abortive affair with the brittle author Dick (Hinds), who doesn't show much affection to her. As for the free-spirited Pauline, the wedding would be her trump card to finally earn her some sense of superiority in front of Margot, but there is a monkey wrench in her plan, it turns out that Malcolm isn't a totally above-board marriage material for her. If the intrigues and turns of events sound remotely interesting on paper, Baumbach's effectuation fails to live up to that expectation, like the rushed ending, after the whole fuss, we are still none the wiser about Margot, although Kidman gives a layered performance that is often out of her comfort zone. However, everyone is blown out of water by Lee, whose Pauline is a composite of messiness, grievance and uncertainty, and she manages to pull together a semblance of integrity out of her ex-husband's slap-happy ideation (she and Baumbach was married at that time), and when she tears into her outpourings, they are legion. Still, hoisted by its own petard of kookiness, MARGOT... is self-indulgent, fickle, full of caprices that further pull audience away from empathizing with its characters, not Baumbach's best offering, that is for sure. " read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, thanks.

Genre-indeterminate offering that is likely to irritate

[jrarichards · 6/10 · 10 April 2020]

A 2007 film from Noah Baumbach that features Nicole Kidman, Jack Black, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Ciaran Hinds ought to be on to something. But instead you'll most likely wonder if it's on something...

Obviously, there's acting talent on display here, but a tension-between-sisters story doesn't go that far, as in the end the sisters do at least tolerate each other, and occasionally do better than that. Kidman as Margot does not approve of potential husband for her sister Malcolm (Black), and Malcolm is not the kind of character you especially warm to - but then there is nobody in that category present here at all, and both sisters have certain issues with their offspring - that's a desperately-in-need-of-a-haircut Zane Pais, and Flora Cross, as Claude and Ingrid respectively (shades of Casablanca, then? Sorry, not really).

Nevertheless, the viewer here has a slightly uncomfortable feeling that Claude and Ingrid might indeed become kissing cousins, just as one has an uncomfortable feeling that Margot treats son Claude as too much of an adult, while simultaneously being over-protective, but then - at a whim - also extremely dismissive and hurtful towards her only offspring. Indeed, at one moment in the film she has an offhand moment of incoherence in which she seems to suggest Claude might actually be her sister's son!

The movie is in fact replete with this kind of thing. We have (yet another) uncomfortable feeling that the neighbours here (the Vogel family) are up to some really sinister, possibly child-abusive or otherwise sick things, while Malcolm has a (bit of a) thing for the baby-sitter, who also at one point tries it on with Claude (supposedly just 11 years old, though you wouldn't get this from the film at all). We also get a bit of Jack Black buttock, a bit of sex, Margot masturbating, the butchering of a pig, crude words, suggested drugs and various other "stuff" - hence the entirely justificable overall conclusion of exploitation to no good purpose.

All of this means that the film is suggestive of genres it never reaches, and probably never intended or wanted to reach - hence its irritatingly fake appearance over all. Probably the main thing going on here is actually the way in which the controlling "superior sister" Margot is actually less competent as a human being than her sibling Pauline, and in fact on the verge of breakdown. Since both sisters were apparently abused by their father, and since there is a passive mother still alive out there somewhere, we know why the sisters may be as they are, but can we really summon the energy to give a fig about that?

All of that means a reasonably well-done part for Kidman, and indeed for most cast members ... but what of it really?

Another awful Noodly Noah Baumbach Film

[ajkbiotech · 6/10 · 13 May 2021]

Boring dialogue

Boring plot

Decent acting

Not much else.

Horrible waste of time

[jcm800 · 1/10 · 14 February 2008]

I just suffered through this mess and I am happy to report the credits rolling. That was the best part of the picture for me, the fact that it was over. Hey I like well acted bad people, but this didn't have either. The only redeeming factors were hearing Nicole Kidman use foul language and a brief masturbation scene with her in it. The whole cast would benefit from being thrown down a trash chute along with the film that recorded this pile of dung. The two children of the horrible parents, if you could even call them parents, struck me as being along for the pathetic ride in both their performance and the role they play. The ridiculous and retarded neighbors may as well have lived in the same house with all of the other pathetic people. Two thumbs down, way down.

I liked this even more than The Squid and the Whale

[zetes · 9/10 · 2 March 2008]

A box office flop, even for an independent film. It's not hard to see why. This is one of the most emotionally violent movies I've ever seen, and I'm sure many people would find it more than a little unpleasant. But for those of us who can appreciate this kind of material, Margot at the Wedding is a great movie. Even if for no other reason, Nicole Kidman delivers her very finest performance in it. She's kind of going through a Katharine Hepburn-esquire box office poison thing right now, but, as with Hepburn, she's as strong, if not stronger, than ever. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black, as well as the rest of the cast, also deliver excellent performances. There are some issues in the periphery that are kind of weird and underdeveloped, especially concerning the bizarre, half-seen activities of the neighbors. On the other hand, there are some other bits that sit perfectly in the distance, only partly explained, like the entire portrait of Margot's and Pauline's childhood. The movie leaves a lot to ponder about these beautifully written characters. It's rough around the edges, but wonderful for that.

Two sisters

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 4 July 2009]

We are asked to eavesdrop in the tense relationship of two sisters that are as different as day from night, and who have been estranged for quite some time. Margot, the most successful of the the siblings, is a writer of some notoriety, while Pauline is a home person, who admits her best asset might be in her skills as a cook. These women have grown apart for some time. The occasion for the visit is to celebrate Pauline's wedding to Malcolm, an oddball of a man that is her living companion.

Margot has a son, Claude, and is married to Jim, also a writer. As the two sisters meet, some of the old resentment suddenly appears to be a thing of the past. After all, this is a joyous occasion, even if it isn't Pauline's first marriage. As they catch up, Pauline tells her sister she is pregnant and asks her to keep the secret because she hasn't told Malcolm yet.

Unfortunately, Margot visit to her sister's is actually an excuse for getting together with the man she has been seeing, the pretentious Dick Koosman, who also happen to be a neighbor. To complicate things further, Margot tells Claude about his aunt's pregnancy. Claude, in turn, decides to reveal the secret to his cousin Ingrid, which infuriates Pauline. This is the last straw in the sisters' long hatred for one another. It is easy to see why, Margot, on the surface seems to have it all, but does she? Pauline, a woman without much to give has clung to Malcom as her last hope for happiness, but unfortunately, she too, is betrayed by her man.

Noah Baumbach's "Margot at the Wedding" is a difficult picture to sit through. We feel as though we have been invited to witness all the hidden emotions between two women who would be better off enjoying each other, yet, they are deeply flawed and can't get a grip on what is important and what is needed. Margot is forever writing things in her diary which later on appear in her highbrow pieces in The New Yorker, or Harper's, or some other intellectual publication.

Nicole Kidman's Margot is at times brilliant, as well as repulsive. She was given a plum role in which to appear; while one's reaction is one of disbelief in the way she acts toward Pauline, it is part of her makeup as a bitter woman. Jennifer Jason Leigh, one of the most mannered actresses of her generation, is actually a surprise in the film. It might be due to having her husband directing, and having been asked to tone her performance down. Jack Black, another annoying performer, does his best work in films as the idiotic Malcolm. John Turturro, Ciaran Hands, and the rest play as an ensemble.

While this film, which is obviously not for everyone, will displease some viewers, it has its merits in the way Mr. Baumbach moves his characters around.

Atroicious. Hugely disappointing.

[royale_w_cheez44 · 1/10 · 2 May 2012]

I loved "The Squid and the Whale". And I loved "Greenberg".

"Margot at the Wedding" is simply one of the most atrocious films I have ever seen, and one of the most disappointing products of such a great cast and director.

There is not a single likable, redeemable character, nor is there a storyline that pays off. Imagine 90 minutes of watching a group of repugnant, shallow, neurotic people interacting and arguing about a wedding that we never get to see.

Did I also mention the craft? The film is so amateurishly shot and cut together that you'll find yourself distracted by the lingering shots of an underexposed, awkwardly composed image. Or you might not understand the jarring shift in tone or pacing from an unmotivated scene change. I simply cannot wrap my head around what they were trying to achieve.

And what makes it all even worse is what could have been. Noah Baumbach has proved himself to be a compelling director and storyteller in the past, even with unlikable characters such as Ben Stiller's Greenberg. Nicole Kidman often makes fascinating, adventurous choices in the roles she portrays. What we are left with is a sloppy, nihilistic mess of a film about a miserable family without any intuition of how decent humans should behave, thus robbing the audience of any sort of fulfillment or engagement that one would hope for in watching a film.

If the film had ended with the tree falling on their house and killing them all, I might have seen a redeeming quality in the poetic justice of the situation. Instead I'm left with a bitter aftertaste of a meandering, boring, dreadful film about people with whom nobody could relate, and therefor engaging in their conflicts was in no way possible. It isn't easy to sympathize with such miserable souls such as those in this film... what a shame.

Real Love Offends the Blithe Spirit

[rhinocerosfive-1 · 8/10 · 29 November 2007]

Another giddy tale of intelligent people behaving like fools, MARGOT has obvious similarities to Noah Baumbach's previous scripts and directorial efforts, but stands as something of a departure nonetheless. Vastly more assured than KICKING AND SCREAMING, equally less comedic than THE SQUID AND THE WHALE, MARGOT is a mood dream of the sort Scandinavians used to crank out in quantity before European audiences started demanding AMELIE all the time. But real life plays out, in my experience, rather unlike a fairy tale, and there is a place in film for the grim fact as well as for the ameliorative platitude. Or there should be.

If this were a TV series, they might have called it "Nobody Likes Margot": she is self-centered, petulant, mopish. A cold sibling, a distant, disapproving parent, a fickle wife, she is easy to hate. But take a look at the people upon whom she vents her spleen: her idiot sister, with no apparent purpose but a strained smile, deserves a little slapping around. The sister's fiancé is a charmless, ineffectual, philandering lout. Margot's husband displays the charisma of a chartered accountant on Ritalin. And those neighbors she riles up really do suck; something should have been done about them long ago. Her son is the only innocent victim, and it's sad for him; but you know, it's sad for all of us. As Jennifer Jason Leigh has said, defending Nicole Kidman's character in interviews, we none of us had perfect parents. It is equally true to say that none of us is a perfect neighbor.

One of the nice messages of the savagely funny SQUID AND THE WHALE was that you can't blame other people for your problems, even if they're directly responsible. The sins of the father are not an excuse to lash out or screw up. This is is an important lesson in the age of first-world terrorism: the task is to heal, to fix, to solve, to get over it, not to wallow in the comforts of finger-pointing.

This sentiment exists in MARGOT too, but in a nebulous, more ambiguous manner. No doubt the sisters would seem more mature if they moved on from the postures they learned in childhood, but this story does not suggest that it would do them much good. There is no template for progress here. There is not much hope in this world, and that's okay; a statement is no less true for its lack of definable perspective.

The critical reaction has largely been to accuse the movie of misanthropy. We didn't hear so much of this about SQUID/WHALE because that occupied a definable American genre (family comedy), albeit the very harshest corner of the category; Americans will put up with any subversion of their values if they can be made to see that it's all in service of a dramatic purpose. But here the joke has no punch line, and its very ambiguity confuses and angers those who need things spelled out. I suspect that because MARGOT rarely makes us laugh, more often wringing out a sigh of pained recognition, many people are having a hard time with it.

Oh! Noah

[writers_reign · 7/10 · 1 March 2008]

The way I figure it Noah Baumbach went to see Gene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night and figured it was a comedy. I can just hear him saying 'Shoot! That guy O'Neill wouldn't know a dysfunctional family if one bit him on the ass; I got me a REAL prime example, one that'll make the Tyrones look like the Waltons'. And darned if he hasn't. An early exchange between the two sisters - Margot has just returned after a long estrangement for Pauline's wedding - sets the tone; Pauline mentions a guy she used to go with and Margot says 'wasn't that the guy that raped you?' 'No, that was dad', replies Pauline. Like the man said, where do we go from here. There are a few laughs strewn amongst the torn, bleeding lives Baumbach wheels out for us and the acting is certainly out of the right bottle but it's less of a follow-up to his last success than a small squid and a huge wail.

By far one of the worst movies ever made!

[partinpruthi · 1/10 · 5 March 2008]

I do not know what the director/writer was attempting, but this movie is horrible. Maybe this is what movie writing has come to. Movies with bad story lines and worse endings. Making sense of this movie is very difficult, and finding the whole point of the story is impossible. You watch this movie and by the end of it, you do not know WHY? As a big movie watcher, with more than 1000 movies ever watched, I really hope movies in the future are not like this. Maybe this is the modern/artistic (a.k.a. shitty) types of movies people are trying to make so that they get noticed or win an award or something. This movie is an attempted "different"! It fails horribly!