Margot at the Wedding

NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Margot at the Wedding" (Paramount Vantage) is a well-acted though downbeat tale of neurotic short-story writer Margot (a superb Nicole Kidman), who takes her son Claude (Zane Pais), a teenager on the uneasy brink of puberty, to attend the wedding of her often-estranged sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh).

They travel by train to the Long Island family home in which the sisters were raised.

Pauline, a teacher and something of a free spirit, is about to marry an out-of-work artist and musician, Malcolm (Jack Black), and she's both astounded and delighted that her usually distant and supremely self-absorbed sibling has deigned to attend the ceremony.

But it soon becomes clear that her motives might have less to do with sisterly affection than the fact that Margot has a book-signing in the area, but she's also hoping to reconnect with former lover and fellow writer Dick (Ciaran Hinds) there, and break up with Claude's father, Jim (John Turturro).

Dick, in turn, has a teenage daughter, Maisy (Halley Feffer), whose own budding sexuality will lead to trouble as the story progresses.

Pauline, who already has a teenage daughter, Ingrid (Flora Cross), confides to Margot that she's already pregnant, a fact unknown even to Malcolm, and Margot's indiscreet repetition of this fact to Claude kicks off a furor, putting a serious dent in the uneasy truce between Margot and Pauline. Margot's disdain for the prospective groom, whom she finds to be a crude addition to the family, will be another factor.

The mother-son dynamic between Margot and Claude is anything but healthy. Both smotheringly protective and heedlessly hurtful as the whim strikes her, Margot has her son understandably confused, but he remains totally in his mother's thrall.

Kidman, who gives one of her best performances, is not afraid to make her character frequently unlikable, if often pathetic, as when she fearlessly shows the family she can climb a tall oak tree, and then loses her nerve about descending and needs to be rescued by the fire department.

Writer-director Noah Baumbach's keenly observant drama (interlaced with mordantly comic moments) has much the same feel as his more autobiographical "The Squid and the Whale," which portrayed a singularly dysfunctional family.

Some viewers will find "Margot" as grimly fascinating as the earlier film, others will be turned off by the often reprehensible actions of these undeniably human, but mostly unlikable, characters and the elements which follow below.

The film contains pervasive rough language and profanity, brief partial and rear nudity, masturbation, adultery, adolescent sexuality, premarital pregnancy, drug use, some physical violence and much domestic discord. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

---

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops