Review of Margot at the Wedding (2007) by Swivelchair — 09 Dec 2007

Is it me? Am I giving this writer/director too much credit? This film reminds me of "The Hoax" -- the one with Richard Gere, playing Clifford Irving. Some people get it, some don't. The marketing of this movie, imo, was misleading.

I didn't think it was at all funny. It was a car wreck you can't turn away from. If the purpose of a movie is to evoke the emotion of the audience, this one evoked it in me. It totally creeped me out.

I agree with all the other reviews. The people are hideous and there is no action and no comic relief, really. The real action is understanding the fully terrifying psyches of the protagonist, Margot (Nicole Kidman).

Nicole Kidman was amazing -- and I thought Richard Gere was amazing in "Hoax" -- as someone with a psychological disturbance who is clearly "up a tree" so to speak. The other actors were great, especially the son.

Am I the only one who got the allusions? A reference to self-gratification: Margot has sex with herself, of course. In what I thought was the most painful scene in the movie, the son, who tries to win his mother's love by satisfying her needs for adoration, almost says he was thinking about her in his self-gratification.

She brushes it off without a thought, despite her progressive "spousification" of him. Where there is empathy -- by Margot's husband saving a dog hit by a car -- Margot blooms into full-flowered contempt.

In Nicole Kidman, we can't tell the imperceptible shift -- is the contempt for others or for herself or does she not even know herself? The dysfunction goes way deeper, imo, than just the dialogue.

I'm not even in film school. Why is this movie panned? This was pretty amazing acting. Or was it acting? There isn't a sympathetic protagonist anywhere, except maybe the dog. Jack Black was perfect for this role -- a guy who knows when the gig is up, and admits he's a loser.

At least he's honest. I can't say he was acting. So is this good acting? I don't know. The sociopaths next door are at least open about their proactive aggression. The tragedy, of course, are the innocents.

This happens all the time. I wonder what will happen to these little souls, who have been touched by evil. I hope they grow up and make movies.