Movie Essays and Reviews

2007-Nov-27 - Margot at the Wedding

    Margot at the Wedding opens with the central character, Margot (Nicole Kidman) and her son Claude (Zane Pais), on a train to her old home for her sister's wedding. Through the mannerisms and dialogue in just this scene alone, we learn a lot about both characters and also discover Margot's feelings towards the marriage of her sister and her fiance. The first scene alone establishes the personalities of Margot and Claude, their relationship, their maturity level, and the mood for the rest of the film. The natural lighting gives a dark look, which more than suits the subject matter and characters. The plot is fairly simple and is an easy target for the lazy film-goer, but it is kept that way to allow the characters to truly shine and brilliantly portray an awkward, uneasy weekend with a truly dysfunctional family.

   The film is hard to enjoy if you're looking for a humorous examination of a family (or people, rather) that can't get along. Sure, it does have it's humor, but director Noah Baumbach opts to stick with real human drama and have the humor as a side note. The film is tricky and even hard for some to enjoy (it got an awful reception at a Canadian festival) because the characters (especially Margot) are pretty detestable. However, they do have their merits, and it'd be very wrong for one to pan the movie because of the way the characters act, as the characters are genuine people. It's unnecessary for me or anyone to describe that a real person often has desires or thoughts that are often looked down upon, as that is a well known fact. However, its very confusing for someone to accept a real person's faults and mistakes but not be able to accept a fictional character displaying these humanistic traits. Maybe that's it, though. Maybe people are too afraid when the cinema gets real, or more simply, they don't accept when others act strangely or say the wrong thing.

   "It's hard to find people you love more than your family." This is said by Pauline, played masterfully by Jennifer Jason Leigh, to her nephew Claude. In any other movie with any other story, what she said would've been totally believable and even pretty corny. However, given the circumstances and the context of the entire movie, the line has a certain sadness to it, almost rendering it pathetic. There are two possible explanations for this line. It's as if Pauline is trying to either convince Claude that she really does love his Mother so he can just enjoy himself and not worry about the family hating each other; or she's trying to remind him that that's the norm and he should feel like that, almost in an effort to steer him away from the awful relationship between Pauline and her sister Margot and towards the love and care normally associated with family. Though the intentions behind the line aren't as heart-warming as they normally are, they certainly are more interesting. And more human.

   Baumbach came to fame in 2004 as writing partner with Wes Anderson for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Through that connection, Baumbach made the very personal film The Squid and the Whale, and then had his first feature, the brilliant and very consistently funny Kicking and Screaming released on Criterion. Initial reaction to Life Aquatic wasn't very favorable, as it was long, clunky, and seemingly empty. Further viewing disproves this, much like any further viewing of a Wes Anderson film. The Squid and the Whale has characters much like those in Margot at the Wedding, dealing with a divorce that breaks up the family. The most interesting thing that Baumbach takes part in for his films are the back stories and histories that we don't know about, things that are just hinted at or briefly mentioned in or under the dialogue, or even things that the audience must just assume or make up themselves. Because Baumbach doesn't spend (or rather, waste) time on these things, it delivers a richer experience to the audience. Maybe having the characters as children an interacting with one another would've made more audience members be able to connect with the characters in Margot at the Wedding, but that is too easy. Life isn't that easy.

   Although currently not working with Wes Anderson (unless we count the pre-production Slowga of The Fantastic Mr. Fox), there are some common elements between both of their new films (Margot at the Wedding and The Darjeeling Limited, respectively). This isn't new, as both explore common themes and situations, though I feel like The Squid and the Whale is often looked down upon as a lesser Wes Anderson project, when in fact it is not at all. Baumbach's movie is much more down to earth and grounded, and though Anderson paints a very real picture fairly often, he sometimes spends too much time on the background. Rarely is he missing something, though- the two just happen to focus their extra efforts on different things. Anderson has a definite focus on the art direction and entire look of the film, whereas Baumbach seems to spend much time directing his actors and bringing out certain emotions that the script merely touched upon. Also, the two seem to tackle the same issues and end up with very different results. The Darjeeling Limited has a character who is a short story writer, which is the same profession as Margot. The two both write from real experiences and publish them, however the character in Darjeeling claims its all fiction regardless of how many times his brothers claim they never said or did what he wrote. This comes off humorously, and the brothers never seem too bothered by what he writes. In Margot, however, Pauline accuses Margot of destroying her first marriage and then orders her not to write anything about the weekend that just happened. Margot also writes of her family and their situations to get away from herself, almost to convince herself that she is a good person. She is called out on stage at a bookstore, to which she replies with a different story and then runs off to be alone. There are many interesting reasons why Margot writes what she does, why she doesn't include herself or why she writes characters as herself but refuses to acknowledge that any are based off of her. The character in Darjeeling seems to write to fill a certain emptiness or void, but it doesn't seem to be as captivating as Margot's reasons.

   What truly is captivating is how the film is full of instances of humans at their worst. It creates some truly uncomfortable scenes. These include Margot and Pauline talking to each other casually, bonding for at one moment and then quietly and subtly trying to out do each other at another moment. The casualty of the conversation returns, until Margot walks over to a window just closed by Pauline and opens it for fresh air. Pauline then follows Margot's next line by telling her, modestly, that she's become quite a good cook. This awkwardly placed line reveals Pauline's place in the sisterly competition that seems to have been going on since they were born, and seemed to have come out on it's own seeing as the conversation had already veered in a different direction. The scene is most interesting because Baumbach skillfully directs each woman to speak and move like they both have power, and that they both want the upper hand over one another. The scene is very uneasy, and at face, all it is is two family members speaking to one another. Sure, Saw 4 rattled everyone up when one female character's hair was being ripped out of her skull by some cleverly made chair, but it's way more interesting and effecting to see two characters play a figurative tug of war with each other, no blood or scalps involved.

   Maybe we're not supposed to connect with these characters, but it's more interesting to think of the expectation of Baumbach that we are supposed to connect with these characters, but most won't because of their refusal to accept these characters and their intentions and actions as human. Written off as detestable rather than genuine, audiences seem to be missing the points and portraits Baumbach is giving to us. Surely, there are some easy connections that everyone can make. Being the person who thinks lowly of their siblings or even good friend's love interest because they think the person can do much better, or even being in a long term relationship and thinking of cheating then accusing the other of having the same thoughts but denying your own. These are fairly common problems that I'm sure most have either experienced or witnessed.

   In addition to the many layers the film already has, the look of the film is another shining achievement which adds to it. The film uses very little lighting, and has a very grey/white color to it. The result is a dark look which greatly adds to the tone and mood of the film. It is mostly shot hand held as well, which makes the film seem more chaotic.

   Noah Baumbach has come a long way since his first feature film, Kicking and Screaming. Going from that to Margot at the Wedding, you can see him mature into a better writer/director from film to film. Margot is definitely his most accomplished film to date, as every aspect of the film is truly amazing. Not only is it one of the best films of 2007, it is a personal choice for best film of the year.

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Includes film essays and reviews written by Chris Bell.

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