Romina’s Blog

“Margot and her son Claude decide to visit her sister Pauline after she announces that she is getting married to less-than-impressive Malcolm. In short order, the storm the sisters create leaves behind a mess of thrashed relationships and exposed family secrets.” -imdb.com

Margot at the Wedding. I was at a screening for this film last night. I knew absolutely nothing about it, except for the cast that worked on the film and Noah Baumbach. I had the choice of seeing the trailer before I went, but I decided to watch it with a clean slate.

I have not seen any of Noah Baumbach’s previous work as a director so I cannot compare this to his other work. I have read a few reviews for this movie and they all seem very long and very intricate to me. I prefer to write something simpler for the people that are not interested in the extra punctuation marks.

Now about the film. This is a very complex movie, not only because of the characters, but the story as a whole. The screening I attended was followed by a Q & A with Noah Baumbach, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Jack Black. Noah mentioned that when he was writing for this film he cut out all unnecessary parts. This process is evident in the movie; the movie is a compilation of various conversations and little events held during the days that Margot is visiting. The unimportant things that are so often mentioned in movies are not in this film. I found that to be something interesting because as an audience member I felt that I was a part of the family. Most of the conversations were cut right when reaching the climax. When it first occurred I was taken aback because I am so used to seeing the fight or the struggle in the conversation. Not being a part of it made me more involved. Noah uses very little lighting here and leaves the sun and the shadows to determine the look of the scene. For me this was very real and surprisingly I enjoyed it.

With a film like this the casting is very important. I think that an excellent job was done. Every person that was cast had a unique look to them. They all looked interesting because of their physical attributes. I was really impressed with Nicole Kidman’s portrayal of Margot. She has her moments in film and I believe that this was one of them. I feel that Nicole has a strong potential and sometimes is not given the proper roles to help her fulfill it. Jennifer Jason Leigh was so natural and had some really great moments while on screen.

This is getting long and intricate isn’t it? Well, point is the movie is good, but not a movie for everyone.

On another note I was able to meet Jack Black. He’s very funny and very nice. :)