Margot at the Wedding - out now
Noah Baumbach is the king of dysfunctional, and in this follow up to The Squid and the Whale he gives us another bite at the cherry as he explores the way in which families can be both a blessing and a curse.
The central relationship this time round is sisterhood. Waspish short-story writer Margot (Nicole Kidman) takes her 11-year-old son Claud (Zane Pais) to Long Island where her estranged and nervy Sister Pauline is about to marry unemployed artist Malcolm (Jack Black). As well as a wish to bury the hatchet, Margot, who has recently separated from her husband, has some intentions of her own. She hopes to hook up with old flame and fellow writer Dick (Ciarán Hinds), with whom she is also jointly holding a talk.
As soon as she’s arrived at Pauline’s family home, however, the sisterly rivalry between them begins to rear its ugly head. Margot cannot apparently control her tongue as she lashes out at the perceived inadequacies she finds in other people – most of all in Malcolm, who comes across as a bit of a loser. Over the weekend, all sorts of family secrets come out of the woodwork, and tensions reach a climax with the unexpected arrival of Margot’s husband.
The movie is filmed under dim lighting giving the whole thing a claustrophobic air. Baumbach has a knack of combining comedy with aching awkwardness, and at times this is almost too painful to watch, such as when the two sisters laugh hysterically at their abusive father who raped their younger sister to the point where it’s impossible to tell whether they’re joking.
Any lightheartedness evident in The Squid and The Whale has been replaced by acerbic cruelty, and the whole tone of the film is darker and more somber.
Kidman gives a stunning performance as the bossy, uptight Margot, and the sparky, jealous relationship with her sister, played by Baumbach’s real-life partner Jennifer Jason Leigh, is both affective and convincing. Though the sisterly relationship remains fascinating, the ‘brutal honesty’ of the film makes you wonder what kind of a childhood Baumbach endured, since every single character is highly dysfunctional. Worth watching for the acting, but this second attempt at portraying families in turmoil doesn’t really pay off as it did in Squid and the Whale.
