"Margot at the Wedding" (2007) - Movie Review

Noam Baumbach can sculpt a snob with perfection and in “The Squid and the Whale”, through Jeff Daniels he gave the claimed intellectualism of a writer and in “Margot at the Wedding”, it is through Nicole Kidman again a writer. Do writers consume themselves in their throne of intellectualism or the headstrong feeling having able to see through a character over paper makes them ubiquitous to give rights to be a control freak? While it is not a generalization he makes, it certainly is amusing to think like that of these characters. It was told that his screenplay for “The Squid and the Whale” came through his personal experience when his parents went through the hard labour of divorce, needless to say painful. And Kidman’s Margot takes note of her life happenings in a journal to put it in her book even if it involves breaking the confidence of her loved ones. She did so in one of her novels with her sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) which brought Pauline’s first marriage down. Yet when she comes down for Pauline’s wedding, she likes it and it means so much to her. Margot does not know what she ought to think.

Baumbach wants to see the reality of a wedding with gloominess, without planning and the bright nature cheerfulness evaporated into the wintery weather and in people. Margot a well known writer after years of feud with her sister Pauline arrives with her son Claude (Zane Pais). Pauline and Margot had their hippie days and rough days with their dad. They have another sister Becky whom we never meet, mainly that she hates Margot. Margot is the obvious successful one in terms of finance and family, but her marriage is breaking down. She is in fact in town combining multiple things. One such is with Dick Koosman (Ciarán Hinds), a guy with his own ego boosted up when a woman’s is brought down. But he is not the story.

Margot is the bossy, judgmental and unmerciful high stand cousins one would have who believe strongly to know the absolute right things and they go to great extents to make others abide by it. She does not like Pauline’s fiancé Malcolm (Jack Black) who is the cool and funny uncle a family would have. They might be the creative soul but their motivation has a self explanatory conviction that they seem to be working hard on doing nothing with true sincerity on a couch. Black has been phenomenally improving in every film he has starred and has been able to widely come out of the obnoxious funny guy to a guy not only funny but has a true character in him. He is the most understandable part in this chaos and yet his Malcolm slips in relationship when it is crucial.

Seeing “Margot at the Wedding” is the assimilation of little frowns, lines, irritation and agony to form an avalanche, of course coming to the schedule of a life without solution. The string of relationship that is between our kin is never to be understood to its complete power. It is a puzzle which never gets solved or may be it does and then we break up until we find a new one to figure out. Margot genuinely wants good thing for Pauline but in her way. Pauline wants to trust and love Margot because they were in ties when the worse things happened to them as kids. Both are tangled in this mistrust and trust with each other and end up hurting too.

But look at the males in this film and it is not amazing that the women have figured out well out the behaviour pattern of us. They are next to accurate on most of the things but we still spring a surprise to them. Well, not really, if they guessed we will ogle at the next coming girl, we might ogle at the following next best girl in the line. We are programmed as that and it is a life long fight to over come the zeal of temptation with the rationality of the situation. And the rationality vanishes when women drive men to the limits of madness. Not their better half but through their better half. For Malcolm it is Margot and for Pauline it is Malcolm. I know only the person who saw the film might get that previous line but watch it to continue the debate of this paragraph.

Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh represents the epitome of sisterhood which exists in different forms but same level of naked jealousness, love and hate for each other in life. They tip toe around each other and provide the space in the performance but not in characters. With Jack Black and John Turturro in between they have got the best supporting performance for their respective characters.

In every person the division of thinking good and doing good contests among itself and the failure to react on appropriate action leaves with hate and guilt. Humans hardly have the capability to hate them and that results in reflecting on others. Margot is one such and suffers not alone within her but with every one surrounding. It is not visible of her love or caring to her sister, her son or her husband in the film but they seem to see it and through them we believe. Baumbach leaves the film which would be unconvincing and open for many but that is the beauty of the life as such. Some times a problem’s solution is to leave it as it be and reside in the patience of indifference.