NYFF: Margot at the Wedding

By Katey Rich

Nicole Kidman stars as the titular character.

Though Noah Baumbach has discussed the ways in which his own childhood inspired his previous film, The Squid and the Whale, the origins of Margot at the Wedding came from a single idea: a mother and a son sitting on a train. I had this idea, [and] I thought something seemed exciting to me," Baumbach said at the film's press conference. "I felt like I could feel the movie even though I didn't know what the movie was."

That image became the first scene of Baumbach's film, a meditation on familial relationships that may not contain the same narrative elegance as his previous, Oscar-nominated film, but tells a far more universal story.

Kidman at the festival.

Nicole Kidman stars as Margot, a Manhattan-based writer who travels with her son Claude (Zane Pais) to Long Island, where her estranged sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is marrying Malcolm (Jack Black), an unemployed "artist" for whom Margot has nothing but contempt. Margot is contemplating leaving her husband Jim (John Turturro) for another writer who lives near Pauline, and when Jim arrives for the weekend against Margot's wishes, she's forced to confront him and her feelings. In the meantime, Pauline and Malcolm deal with pre-wedding issues and revelations, while Claude copes with oncoming puberty through friendship with Pauline's daughter Ingrid (Flora Cross) and a crush on the babysitter (Halley Feiffer).

The film earns both its humor and poignancy thanks to the characters, all of whom are fully realized through the taut screenplay and dedicated performances. "When I'm writing I pretend these people really exist," said Baumbach. "I don't really think about actors--in my head they're all existing in some alternate world.'

Each of the actors had praise for the depth with which their characters were written. "I think Noah's writing is very precise and quite human," Turturro said. "I had a small role, and Noah kept telling me it was very important. When we worked on it, I could see what it meant to him." Leigh added, "The scenes were really alive, and well-written."

Kidman, whose character criticizes and pushes away nearly everyone and everything in the film, said taking on an unlikable character was a welcome challenge. "I think the wondrous thing about being an actor is, when something's really well-written, all you have to do is put yourself in the director's hands," she said at the press conference. "As much as people described [Margot] as a monster, I wanted her to be someone [whose pain] you could feel, and you could feel all of the sort of fears and defensiveness and the way in which she can sting people and hurt people and ultimately hurts herself."

Baumbach and Leigh at the festival.

Kidman, Leigh and Black all moved into the house in which the film is set weeks before shooting began, achieving an intimacy that caused many members of the press to compliment Baumbach for the film's relaxed, realistic atmosphere. Kidman explained, "You see the film start to grow just because you start to embody the characters gently, without feeling like you have to show up and quickly find the scene. It helped all the relationships in the film." Despite the naturalness of the dialogue, Baumbach said there was no improvisation, just lots and lots of rehearsal. "Clearly [the actors] put so much of themselves in the movie. I want the actors to say the lines as they're written, but at the same time I want this thing that only they can bring. A lot of the time I feel that it's more about finding a way for them to find a way into these lines, and sort of making it their own."

The film feels as comfortable as the Hamptons mansion in which it takes place, with the actors at ease with one another and the dialogue as unvarnished and complicated as real life itself. Baumbach may still be writing about New York-based intellectuals, but by getting out of the five boroughs he's created a simpler, and more accessible, film. Everyone has a Margot, the constant critic, or a Pauline, an optimist until pushed past her limits. As one of the few comedies in this year's festival, Margot at the Wedding came as a pleasant relief; it deserves to find the same welcome amid this fall's line-up of drama-heavy films.