Sisters fighting? Check.  Impending wedding? Check. Lots of drama? Check, check, and check! Margot at the Wedding has all three and more, but do they really add up to a movie worth watching? Well…I can tell you what I thought and let you decide from there.

Margot (Nicole Kidman, The Golden Compass) has not talked to her sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Road to Perdition) in years, but decides to go to her wedding anyway.  After all, her sister is her best friend.  She brings along her teenage son Claude (Zane Paris in his debut role) for company.  What follows is a crazy week where the past is revisited, the present is rethought, and everyone’s true personalities show through.  

Directed and written by Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) Margot at the Wedding is another movie about a dysfunctional family.  I expected a lot out of this movie, as I loved Bambach’s first feature film and thought this would be on the same lines.  I was disappointed.  I thought that The Squid and The Whale was a perfect mix of dark comedy, family drama, and a coming of age story.  I think Baumbach tried to do the same thing with Margot at the Wedding, and failed.   Most of the comedy fell short, although there are some funny moments, like Margot getting stuck in a tree, although most of it gets muddled in between everything else that is going on.  I also had a problem with the editing of this movie.  There are many jump cuts that just seem unnecessary.  The audience sees one character, and then all the sudden jump cut to that same character only in a slightly different position.  Apparently this was done deliberately, but I have no idea what the reason was for it. The script was at best mediocre at best, but that didn’t stop Baumbach from getting first rate actors.

The one good thing I can say about this movie was that the acting was fantastic!  I normally don’t care for Kidman.  The last movie I can say I actually enjoyed her in was To Die For (which she was superb in, and I would highly recommend watching).  In this movie Kidman plays Margot fearlessly, not caring what people think of her brutal truthfulness and I really liked that.  Leigh, as always, is excellent as Pauline.  Normally Leigh seems to play someone more like the Margot character, but here she is a little more reserved with an occasional outburst.  Paris is a joy to watch as he almost steals scenes away from the veteran actresses with his fresh face, and confused adolescence.  Jack Black (Be Kind Rewind) also shows up as Pauline’s husband to be.  He does have some comedic moments, but Black shows he can play the dramatic just as well.  (Although when he cries it does look kind of weird…) 

After I saw this movie I was at a loss on what to say.  Usually I know right away if I liked a movie or not, but I really had to ponder this one.  Yeah, I really enjoyed watching the actors tackle their roles with zest, but half the time I didn’t care what was going on or about the characters themselves.  But after much thought, I’ve decided this movie was just average and nothing extraordinary so it gets a C from me and I’ll still watch the next movie Baumbach makes.