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Home Subscribe About Us Features News Album Reviews Movie Reviews Past Movies Movie Resources Concert Reviews Book Reviews Top 10 Contact Us	Margot At The Wedding Stars: Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Black, Ciaran Hinds, Zane Pais, Flora Cross and Halley Feiffer Director/Scriptwriter: Noah Baumbach Paramount Vantage Rating: R Running Length: 93 minutes Noah Baumbach, who dissected a failing marriage in The Squid and the Whale, now takes on the relationship between two sisters, Nicole Kidman (Margot) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Pauline.) You can believe they are sisters, but it stretches belief as to how Pauline could have tolerated Margot all these years. Margot can’t say a pleasant word about anyone or anything. We all know the type. Baumbach adds Margot’s children, Pauline’s fiancé (Jack Black as Malcolm), Margot’s husband (John Turturro) and her lover (Ciaran Hinds) to the mix for an unusual weekend by the sea. In fact, this seashore looks familiar like the one in “Dan in Real Life.” Can it be that the sea has qualities of bringing people together and allowing them to bisect, dissect and trisect each other’s emotions? So much for gorgeous sunsets. The story begins with Pauline’s weekend wedding to Malcolm (Jack Black). Margot comes with the children, but no husband. The sister’s are strained but warm up to each other again. Margot can’t say anything nice and her comments are supposed to be “helpful,” but end up as little digs. She, of course, can’t take criticism, plus she is a best-selling author who thinks nothing of using material about the family in her books. Son Claude (Zane Pais) just plain avoids her. Margot has decided that Malcolm is beneath Pauline's social level and lets everyone know. (“Why are you marrying him? He’s like the guys we rejected at 16.”) Pauline and Malcolm take this in stride, but you see it begins to build on them. Especially when the neighbors protest a certain tree on the property, under which Pauline plans to be wed. This property belongs to the family. Margot even climbs the tree on a dare, but woefully has to be helped down. As the weekend progresses, we see that Margot is at a book signing and slowly unraveling because of questions her secret boyfriend (Ciaran Hinds as the on-air host) asks about her family relationships. This particular scene is poignant as Margot realizes she is not in control here. Even a surprise visit from husband John Turturro can’t please Margot. The two sisters banter about family and past events in a friendly manner, but underneath is a current of rivalry and secrets exposed. Nothing is sacred in this family. As the sisters talk, we hear personal items about their friends, such as personal sexual dysfunction and how Dad used to beat the kids with his belt. “Margot at the Wedding” has frank sexual talk and language. When someone says something behind someone’s back, you just know that in five minutes, it will be said to their face. Nicole Kidman does an intense job as Margot. Here is a woman who gives the impression of tip-toeing through life, when, in fact, she is cutting a wide swath of sarcastic remarks hidden behind manners. Her hands are acting, too. Pauline, on the other hand, caves in and avoids confrontation, but everyone has their breaking point. Jennifer Jason Leigh has an innate hesitancy to make this work in her favor as she coasts along behind Margot. Margot takes being the big sister, seriously. John Turturro as Margot’s patient husband, tries to please but gets everything “wrong” in her estimation. Margot’s son, Zane Pais is starting to develop an avoidance of situations in order to cope with his mother. Jack Black as Malcolm, the groom-to-be, is the only one to frankly say what he means, but Black does it in the “Jack Black” way. Here is an opportunity for Black to define a character and he doesn’t do it. Actually, the only “thing” to make a definitive statement is the tree and it does so in an eloquent way. Margot at the Wedding certainly gets family problems into the open and some are hinted at---such as the relationship between Margot and her father---which are not developed. This is left inconclusive. Also, the reason for the neighbor’s interest in the tree is sudden. Why? I find “Margot at the Wedding” to be telling and at the same time puzzling, like a jigsaw puzzle with a few missing pieces. Copyright 2007 Marie Asner