Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Margot at the Wedding
2007
***½
Director: Noah Baumbach
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Black, John Turturro, Ciarán Hinds, Halley Feiffer, Zane Pais, Seth Barrish, Michael Cullen

Margot travels to her sister Pauline's wedding with her 11-year-old son. The sisters have a brittle relationship, and things are not about to take a turn for the better once the outspoken Margot lays her eyes on Pauline's shiftless fiancé. Noah Baumbach's follow-up to The Squid and the Whale is another relaxed and enjoyable comedy drama about fragile family relations. Margot and her son Claude could be the writer mother and teenage son from the 2005 film. That was a brilliant depiction of the effects of divorce; this one is less clearly about something. These characters are not easy to like but they feel real. The plotting is minimal if not non-existent (the family gets together and things come to a head), but Baumbach writes excellent dialogue.