Margot at the Wedding

Baumbach’s achievement stings. It also has the sureness of tone and direction of a Chekhov story.

While Margot's casual cruelty and the scenes of squirmy discomfort are sometimes painful to watch, the rendering of this disastrous family reunion is seriously, savagely droll.

The cruelly funny Margot at the Wedding shares many of the virtues of "Squid"--it's psychologically astute, sociologically dead on, refreshingly unformulaic--but it's a considerably tougher, less ingratiating movie. People who insist on likable, "sympathetic" protagonists may find it a bitter pill to swallow.

So it goes with the family in this movie. All of its members are engaged in a mutual process of shooting one another down. Watching Margot at the Wedding is like slowing for a gaper's block.

There's plenty to admire in the performances and atmosphere, but the writer-director needed someone to pull him up short.

It's a shame to see such dedicated performers flay their psyches in the service of such fundamentally shallow material.

Margot at the Wedding is a Christmas gift for high-class depressives: a compendium of malaise fit for an L.L. Bean catalog.

The dysfunctional family meeting up can be a cimematic goldmine if done properly, this isn't. One of Baumbach's more disappointing movies.

Margot at the Wedding is not for everybody's taste. It Baumbach achieves something that directors rarely even attempt - for the audience to be simply disgusted and annoyed by the main characters to an extent that they dislike them quite intensely. The screenplay is rather strange and fragmented, which makes the film kind of hard to comprehend, which is my biggest issue with the film. As interesting and complimentary Baumbach's approach is, especially with the 'hating on the characters', it does not help the audience to like the film. On the brighter side, the performances here are top-notch: Nicole Kidman is her usual excellence in this film, as the bitter sister Margot. Her sister is played by the Jennifer Jason-Leigh, who is at least as good as Kidman in his film, if not a tiny bit better. They work great together as sisters. Also, Jack Black is surprisingly real in one of his rare serious roles on-screen. Overall, a difficult but interesting film, with some really good acting.

This movie doesn't really do anything well, other than the crisp dialogue that Baumbach always delivers. It's a film that's not really about anything. At a guess, I could say it's about sisterhood, marriages, parenthood... but nothing really happens to explore these themes in any depth. Half a dozen incidents occur which seem to hint at the development of a storyline, but these never go anywhere. Worse, none of the characters are likeable or even enjoyable to watch with the exception of Jack Black.

Psycho-drame sentimental où ça psychote beaucoup entre deux soeurs un brin névropathes du type "je t'aime moi non plus" et qui vaut surtout pour le mano a mano entre les deux excellentes actrices, Jennifer et Nicole, touchantes et sincères dans leurs personnages respectifs. Le plus étonnant est sans doute Jack Black, bouffon attitré habituel dans bien des comédies gogoles (dont il a le secret) mais ici fort convaincant en beauf particulièrement minable et désoeuvré, voire carrément dépressif à ses heures perdues. On suit donc les atermoiements des préparatifs du mariage de l'une des soeurs, leurs mômes ados, leurs états d'âmes et leur vague à l'âme et si le film n'est pas trop long, il se révèle néanmoins assez chiant globalement même si on a vu ou enduré bien pire dans le genre. Parfois dramatique, parfois presque drôle, le film ne verse pas dans un mélo trop forcé mais fait s'interroger le spectateur sur son but et son utilité même, peut-être parce qu'il oscille trop entre petite comédie et gentil drame et que tout cela nous passe par dessus la tête. Pas vraiment utile donc mais surtout futile en définitive malgré Nicole et Jennifer, très attachantes.

Margot at the Wedding tells the story of a bunch of characters and their lives, but fails to let us know why we are watching them. I love slice of life films, but this is more than slice of life. This simply a series of scenes with loose threads connecting them. It is cringy and quirky, but Baumbach demonstrates little knowledge of human emotion here with very unhuman characters. Honestly, this movie could be described as how aliens would act if they suddenly landed on Earth and tried to act human. These people had the motions, but not the emotions or language. Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh are good, but are stranded in a sea of indie quirk and Baumbach refuses to throw them a lifeline, which is deeply unfortunate. Unlike previous Baumbach efforts I have seen, Margot at the Wedding is not just distant emotionally, it is a film that you have to squint and really focus to see any emotion. Even then, I am not sure there is any. Often times, it plays like a crude and raunchy comedy of modern day that are known for saying things that are outlandish and uncommon just to be random and funny. Though not crude or raunchy, Margot at the Wedding falls for the same trap and thinks being random is hysterical. Unfortunately, it is not. Very disappointing.