Writer is predator in chief in 'Margot at the Wedding'

'Margot at the Wedding.' Family drama reuniting two estranged middle-aged sisters at one's wedding in the Hamptons. With Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Black. Director: Noah Baumbach (1:31). R: Sexual content, language. At Lincoln Plaza, Angelika.

Writer-director Noah Baumbach used the sea-world metaphor "The Squid and the Whale" as the title for his acclaimed 2005 film about two brothers growing up in a dysfunctional Brooklyn family. If he'd kept that notion going, his latest film might have been called "The Shark and the Seal."

Instead, he went with the bluntly literal "Margot at the Wedding" to headline a much lesser story about a successful New York writer who shows up for her sister's wedding in the Hamptons to remind her what a bully she'd always been, and to talk her out of marrying her unworthy lover.

Baumbach's previous film was avowedly autobiographical, which may explain how he was able to balance the hurtfulness of his parents' behavior with his love for them. "Margot" has no sense of balance, or nuance, or even mitigating psychological weight.

It's a feeding session for Margot (Nicole Kidman), an aggressively mean, insensitive, insecure b- shark. She has no redeeming qualities that I could see, and apparently never did. She takes bites out of everyone, but especially her passive sister.

Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a teacher and single mom, is a slow-moving target. She's tired, lonely and vulnerable, trying to gain midlife traction with her attentive,unemployed fiancé Malcolm (Jack Black) and to achieve some kind of family détente.

But Margot has barely arrived when she begins opening old wounds. Pauline is ready to make nice for the sake of her wedding memories, but it's soon apparent that Margot, who is in the process of dumping her husband, has agreed to attend the wedding only because her long-time lover lives just a mile away.

It's apparent from her crying jags that Margot is deeply troubled. About what, however, it's never clear. There are no signs of introspection in her; she's a 2-4/7 narcissist who can't even communicate with her adoring teenage son without nipping at his fragile ego.

For Kidman, it is a one-note performance dictated by the script. Leigh had more dimension to work with and gives the film's most honest performance. Meanwhile, Black, whose job is mostly to deliver comic relief, is completely lost - that is to say, not funny - in the material.

Source: nydailynews.com