Movie Review - 'Margot at the Wedding'

Margot at the Wedding

Starring Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black
Directed by Noah Baumbach
Rated R

It seems like every year we have to duck or be hit right between the eyes by another East Coast Dysfunction Junction, a movie where none of the New York-based characters can stand each other, where we can't stand any of the characters, where everyone wears too much tweed and is two months overdue for a haircut, and where the quirky acoustic soundtrack featuring only bands you've never heard of is just slightly less depressing than the movie.

This year, that movie is Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding, a disastrous follow-up to the much more resonant and lively The Squid and the Whale. Outside of watching unique talents flex their abilities, there's nothing to admire about Margot. Nicole Kidman plays a successful author (surprise) who's going through a separation (surprise), and packs up her weird kid (surprise) to drop in unannounced on her sister's wedding.

Her sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is marrying a man she probably shouldn't (surprise), because he has no job (surprise) and doesn't fit the mold society wants to pour him into (surprise).

The fiance (Jack Black) is caught in the middle because the sisters hate each other (surprise) and there are some daddy issues in their pasts (surprise).

Oh, before I forget, the author is having an affair with some literary type (surprise).

I'm sure Noah Baumbach has more talent than this movie lets on. Even the scenes that are intended to be funny don't make an impact. Kidman has made a ton of bad choices lately, and Margot at the Wedding isn't exactly the bridesmaid in that department.

While it's good to see Jennifer Jason Leigh - always an acquired taste, but usually pretty potent - the relationship that exists between the sisters has been done to death...and Noah Baumbach has a lot of blood on his hands at the moment.