Margot and her teenage son are supposed to attend Pauline, Margot's sister wedding. They travel from Manhattan to the countryside, where Pauline lives. Margot and Pauline have a troubled relationship and haven't meet for a while.Other characters in the movie are Pauline's daughter from a previous marriage, her live-in boyfriend Malcolm (a creepy Jack Black), Margot ex-lover, who conveniently lives close to Pauline and a few nasty neighbors.I read in other reviews that Margot is supposed to be "sophisticated and accomplished" and superior to Pauline, but to me they both looked like bums, badly dressed and bad mannered.Also, I hardly ever felt so detached watching a movie. I usually like or dislike intensely, but in this movie characters behaved in such a totally alien way that they could have belonged to a different species. Although I understood what they said, I had no clue to why the acted the way they did.A silly open ending leaves you exactly where you started. And by the way, only in movies female characters drop their bags and run away. Nobody wants to be bothered with having to get extra keys and copies of all your documents, let alone an allegedly "sophisticated" Newyorker.Finally, the lack of soundtrack and proper lighting, terrible shots (with lots of back-lights), faded color and weird costumes made this look like an amateurish, pseudo-documentary made in the 70s. I got wise too late that Baumbach was the director, at the time still married to Jason Leigh, in the role of Pauline. A role that at present would be played by Gerwig, the permanent female fixture of all his more recent movies (of which I watched two, both of which sucked... hence my remark of having noticed too late his being the director of this other turd)

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.

So the film definitely has some of the most unlikeable characters I've seen in a drama in a while, but the writing is constantly interesting and when you think the film is about to collapse it comes back to life. Still, not to say it isn't flawed or that it's "great" because it's not, but definitely effective. The whole cast is pretty great, although I wish someone else had been cast in Jack Black's role. Kidman especially is a force here, and it's mind-boggling how she failed to get an Oscar nomination for this. It also helps that she has a constantly unpredictable character, and where you shake your head at her and the others you also empathize with them in other ways.

Margot at the Wedding stars one of the greatest living actresses, Nicole Kidman in a stellar turn in this nice, small film.The story is simple. Easy to follow. The mix of comedy and drama is well executed here. The laughs are fast, but effective. There's also a great deal of family drama here. The direction is a hit or miss kind of deal. The director's style is light. It never is obnoxious in your face, it's very subtle. This may bore many fans of Kidman or Jack Black compared to some of their other films. It worked on me, and I thought it worked for most of the time. But, there are some moments where you're sitting there, wondering how can character's be so cruel. Almost as if they are overwritten at times. It's very dark material, but works nine out of ten times.Kidman drives the film in a very restrained, sarcastic performance. It's great. She's wonderful. One of her best post-Oscar performances for sure. Margot on the page was probably a very unlikeable character, but Kidman's touch on things almost makes you have sympathy for her. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays her sister, in a very fine, rich, layered performance. Jack Black tones down the obnoxious comedy here for the most part and works well with the other actors. The child actors are very good here as well, especially the actor who plays Margot's son, Zane Pais. He goes head to head with Kidman a few times and comes out on the other end smiling.Margot at the Wedding is a dark tale of a somewhat-broken family. It's not very long, which is good for me. I dislike films that must go on and on. The story and characters feel authentic, it's written with razor-sharp comedy and contains a excellent performance from Nicole Kidman; 8.