Margot at the Wedding (2007)

Director:

Noah Baumbach

Writer (WGA):

Noah Baumbach (written by)

Release Date:

21 February 2008 (Australia)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

One family. Infinite degrees of separation.

Plot:

Margot and her son Claude decide to visit her sister Pauline after she announces that she is getting married to less-than-impressive Malcolm. In short order, the storm the sisters create leaves behind a a mess of thrashed relationships and exposed family secrets.

Plot Keywords:

Secret | Marital Problem | Family Secret | Teen | Neighbor

Awards:

2 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Zane Pais	...	Claude
Susan Blackwell	...	Woman on Train
Nicole Kidman	...	Margot
Jack Black	...	Malcolm
Flora Cross	...	Ingrid
Jennifer Jason Leigh	...	Pauline
Seth Barrish	...	Toby
Matthew Arkin	...	Alan
Brian Kelley	...	Bruce
Christian Hansen	...	Fireman
Michael Cullen	...	Mr. Vogler
Enid Graham	...	Mrs. Vogler
Sophie Nyweide	...	Vogler Daughter
Justin Roth	...	Vogler Son
Ciarán Hinds	...	Dick Koosman

Also Known As:

Untitled Noah Baumbach Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content and language.

Runtime:

93 min | USA:91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:R | Canada:14A | Ireland:16 | UK:15 | Argentina:13 | Germany:12 | Australia:M | Netherlands:12 | South Korea:18 | Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:K-13 | Sweden:7 | Portugal:M/12

Filming Locations:

City Island, Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Scott Rudin Productions

Trivia:

Nicole Kidman, Jack Black and Jennifer Jason Leigh moved in together during filming, because they wanted to perfect their roles as a dysfunctional family

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Malcolm has trouble recollecting the bassist for Motley Crue, and then remembers that it's Mick Mars. The bass player for Motley Crue is actually Nikki Sixx, although this mistake could have been intentional to further convey the forgetfulness.

Quotes:

Malcolm: Make sure you can handle rejection. I can't.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: (2007-11-17)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Sunday Girl

A Repugnant Film

A typical conversation from "Margot at the Wedding" might go something like this:

"You were always so pretty." "WERE pretty? Does that mean you don't think I'm pretty anymore?" "Why are you responding with all of this passive aggressive hostility? I was just trying to pay you a compliment." "You know, I was noticing earlier today that you have really bad body odor. Does that ever bother you?" "You're such a bitch."

And that's it. Scene after scene of dialogue like this, spoken by one unlikable character to another unlikable character, until you feel like the only possible way for the movie to end satisfactorily is for all of the characters to be impaled on something very sharp and preferably jagged.

Noah Baumbach made an auspicious debut with "The Squid and the Whale," but with "Margot at the Wedding" he makes the mistake of assuming that one person's morbid neuroses are inherently interesting to another. We don't learn anything about these characters, we don't care about them, and we don't like them. You tell me -- do you want to sit through 90 minutes of that?

Grade: F