Margot at the Wedding

Another much needed break: “Margot at the Wedding” is my only film of the day. Lack of sleep, regular 9 to 5 working hours, and a diet of snacks and fast food are taking their toll.

Eager to see the film, and see which of the cast shows up, I got to the Ryerson theatre with lots of time to spare. For anyone not well-acquainted with Toronto or TIFF, Ryerson is one of the best places to see a movie and for some star gazing as you cross the red carpet on your way into the theatre- lots of room to pull off to the side and get some quick pictures of stars.

A big fan of director Noah Baumbach’s previous film “The Squid and the Whale” (rent it tonight if you haven’t seen it), I had high hopes for “Margot.” I can’t say that I was fully satisfied with the film, but it wasn’t a bad way to spend anhour and a half.

“Margot at the Wedding” shares some common themes with “The Squid and the Whale” in terms of being centred around a dysfunctional family and watching characters roam about. When Margot (Nicole Kidman) arrives with her son Claude at her estranged sister Pauline’s (Jennifer Jason Leigh) house as a guest for her upcoming wedding to Malcolm (Jack Black), she is in the midst of a family crisis of her own as her marriage is slowly dissolving. Fuelled by an affair with neighbour (Ciaran Hinds) Margot blows into her sister’s life causing chaos and attemping to re-bond with her younger sibling.

The film isn’t so much about any one thing as it is about characters and perforamces. No real beginning, middle or end to the film, it kind of meanders around and lets Kidman, Leigh, and Black run the gamut of emotional complexes. Their performances are fine, but suffer from a lack of direction. Margot is a different and interesting choice for Kidman, who since her Oscar win seems drawn to grittier roles (”Stepford Wives” and “Bewtiched” aside) that remind us why she deserved her statuette. Jack Black doesn’t appear as “Jack Black” and his restraint is impressive considering he was last seen prancing about in a unitard in “Nacho Libre.” He’s continuing on his Jim Carrey path of non-comedy and he’s better for it. “Margot” seems like it would make a better book than a movie as the characters are often lost in thought, and themselves.

Only Noah Baumbach and Jennifer Jason Leigh made an appearance at the screening. Leigh, who apprently suffers from stage fright was too shy to speak before the film. Also my only celebrity sightings for the day, aside from the people in line who thought they saw Roger Ebert (it wasn’t).