Indie street cred is not something you can buy, it can only be earned. The People know posers when they see them and fans have their favourite filmmakers from whom they’ll buy anything from. Paul Thomas Anderson is like that, Wes Anderson too, and lately Noah Baumbach has been the newest addition to that list after his breakthrough film The Squid and the Whale. Considering how well done Squid was, Margot at the Wedding should have been a slam dunk, and while I did find much of it interesting, I’m not really sure what to make of it.
Margot (Nicole Kidman) is a writer of some renown and she’s currently on her way up the coast with her son Claude (Zane Pais) to attend the wedding of her sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Malcolm (Jack Black). There has been some strife between Margot and Pauline already, they have not talked in some time and Pauline is genuinely surprised that Margot would come to her wedding. Margot begins to wonder why she came too when she gets a load of Malcolm, an unemployed slacker that seems to make a career out of writing letters to magazines. Naturally, Margot begins thinking that Malcolm isn’t good enough for her sister and the meddling begins.
Baumbach is really good at the relationship dynamics; the cast seems so terminally dysfunctional you could swear that they’ve been an actual family for years. This is were the film works best, little scenes where Margot and Pauline let some little bit of long standing argument swallow them up, or when Margot picks on Claude, or anytime Margot’s uncertainties spark strife for Pauline and Malcolm. Different scenes work very well on their own, they’re little glimpses of the way this family lives and loves and it’s kind of interesting to try and guess where it all might be going.
From what I can tell though, it doesn’t seem to be going far. There’s no real character development and Baumbach seems fine with that. And true, in real life it’s hard for people to change even slightly, let alone radically, in just a few days time but I think I was looking for some sign that these characters were on the path to evolution. I’ve heard the complaint that the characters here are unlikable but I didn’t find that the case. Sure Margot’s a curmudgeon, Pauline’s unconfident and Malcolm’s unstable but that’s just real life, these people exist and I think that’s Baumbach’s strength: making us feel the reality of these characters. Besides, if you hate the characters in this movie, then you must have really hated the ones in The Squid and the Whale.
Ultimately, Margot leaves you wanting, wanting for something to hold on to besides individual vignettes. If wish it had been leading towards something other than a dead end, or failing that had stopped to consider that the script was following so many dangling threads that just seem to go on, even if they went in circles that’d be some kind of progress. Still, I can’t deny that the script has some charm and the actors carry it well. An average effort admittedly, but considering the pedigree it’s still kind of worth it.
