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Margot at the Wedding

Review By: Dan Deevy
DanDeevy@TheCinemaSource.com

Margot at the Wedding was not at all the experience I was expecting. Based initially on the title and the fact that Jack Black was the leading man, I was expecting another boring wedding gone awry dramedy. Then after seeing the film, I thought it was one of those completely pointless, ‘glimpse-into-their-lives,’ pictures that really aren’t supposed to have any impact or meaning other than, ‘hey, now I know what it would be like to be that guy for a day.’ It wasn’t until a day or so after that I finally settled on what the film really was. It was actually quite a brilliant piece of filmmaking that requires a lot of work on the part of the audience and can be interpreted in many, many different ways.

You can’t go see this movie alone, you really have to see this movie with someone and you both have to be in the mood to search for hidden meaning, symbolism and that which lies beneath. If you’re not prepared to do that, don’t waste your time, you’ll only end up feeling completely cheated by the experience and will be asking for your money back.

Nicole Kidman does an amazing job as the titular character; a Manhattan based writer and mother of two on her way to the boon docks to her sisters wedding to man she’s only known for a brief time. The exact family back story is never fully explained but we are led to believe that their childhood was less than ideal with an absent mother and an abusive father; the extent or type of the abuse is uncertain. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Margot’s flighty sister Pauline who is thrilled to finally be marrying someone even if it is Malcolm, a not exactly first prize kinda guy played by Jack Black.

The relationship that stands out most to me in the film is between Margot and her son Claude, played with surprising grace and powerful subtlety by newcomer Zane Pais. Claude is at that uncertain age where he’s physically becoming a man but is still emotionally very much a little boy. The lines of what is and isn’t appropriate behavior towards his mom are definitely coming into question. Margot’s relationship with her son and their interaction are really the only clues we have to her own childhood and in my interpretation of the film, it leads to horrifying conclusions and patterns that she herself is desperately trying to avoid.

There are many other interpretations of the film of course, a lot of which argue that the truly revealing relationship to watch is between the two sisters. It is amazing to see how much they love one another but also how immediately destructive they are to each other. ...