Many laud Noah Baumbach, the critically-acclaimed writer/director of "The Squid and the Whale" (2005), for his brutally honest portrayal of failed marriages and dysfunctional families.
In his latest release, "Margot at the Wedding," the filmmaker revisits familiar themes - only this time, the plot centers on a wedding instead of a divorce. Baumbach's black comedy delivers the same shocking humor of his previous film, but it isn't nearly as polished or as original.
Margot (played by Nicole Kidman) is a writer with a razor-sharp tongue who lost touch with her family in the throes of her recent success. She travels back home with her teenage son, Claude (Zane Pais), to an island off the coast of New England, where her sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) has planned her own wedding.
Margot, already dubious of the marriage, is horrified when she meets the groom, Malcolm (Jack Black). He's not only fat and unemployed, but also sports a ridiculous mustache that he claims is "supposed to be funny." The long-overdue reunion quickly turns into a bitter conflict that gradually tears the family apart. Margot's strong disapproval of Malcolm, her rivalry with Pauline and her overbearing motherliness toward Claude trigger her complete alienation until she longs to escape the family gathering from hell.
In "Margot at the Wedding," there are no real protagonists or antagonists, because none of the characters are very likeable. Margot is a spiteful woman who puts down all her relatives to feel better about herself. Pauline is weak and desperate. Malcolm lacks ambition and self-confidence. Yet, their flaws are the source of the audience's entertainment. Their insecurities, helplessness and mean-spirited personalities spark the hilarious tension that culminates in crisis at the end of every scene.
Baumbach treads a fine line between comedy and drama as he invites the viewer to laugh about fundamentally serious matters. The tone of the movie switches from uncomfortably sedate to strangely humorous within minutes and Black's comic relief perfectly complements Kidman's cold performance.
Laughing at other people's misery, however, can only carry a movie so far. Baumbach recycles many of the formulas he used in his last movie. Margot is a female version of Bernard Berkman, the haunting father figure in "The Squid and the Whale." They not only share the same profession, but have strikingly similar character traits: Both are proud, snobbish and competitive.
Meanwhile, the director employs the exact same tricks to highlight his characters' bad faith. In his previous film, the tennis court is a battleground that divides the Berkmans into two distinct camps. In "Margot at the Wedding," Baumbach exchanges rackets for mallets, as the whole family engages in a nasty game of croquet that brings out the worst in everyone. It works, but the fact that it's been done before - by the same director, no less - makes it considerably less impressive.
The screenplay is riddled with well-written dialogue, but the overall structure is incoherent. The filmmaker builds up the tree in the backyard as an important symbol; Pauline and Malcolm plan on getting married under it and Margot used to climb it when she was a young girl. When the neighbors tell the family they want to chop the tree down, the soon-to-be-married couple vows to fight them off. It makes absolutely no sense when Malcolm takes the tree down himself with a chainsaw, without explanation.
When it comes down to it, "Margot at the Wedding" is a poor imitation of "The Squid and the Whale." Still, Baumbach turns the disintegration of a typically Northeastern family into an enjoyable, if not particularly moving, film.
