Will 'Margot at the Wedding' catch the Oscar bouquet?
With critics divided about this drama about yet another dysfunctional family, the film scored 65 pooling the 17 reviews surveyed by Meta Critic but only 51 from the 39 reviews compiled by Rotten Tomatoes. Contrast these middling scores to those for Noah Baumbach's last film — "The 
Squid and the Whale" (82/94) — which landed him a 2005 Oscar bid for his autobiographical script. Will he and his leading ladies, wife Jennifer Jason Leigh as the put-upon bride and Nicole Kidman as the title character, have such luck this year?
Yes, if Lisa Schwarbaum of Entertainment Weekly is to be believed. She writes, "Kidman really is sensational here. She's fearless about being 'ugly,' fully in touch with her character's voracity, and transformed into Margot with a commitment we don't tend to see enough from the striking star, even as she works tirelessly to update her stardom. Kidman's commitment to working with adventurous filmmakers has always been one of her loveliest attributes, but something in this adventure has truly set her free. The result, for the Kidman curious, is exhilarating. For Jennifer Jason Leigh fans, meanwhile, the ease that the characteristically taut actress evidently feels working with Baumbach is evident in her own notably unguarded performance, her buoyancy. There'd be no itchy, scratchy Margot without a Pauline to torment, and Leigh imbues the role, that of a woman who loves and hates her maddening, famous-author sister in equal, crazy-making measure, with soulfulness, and also with a spine."
No, if voters agree with Lou Lumenick of the New York Post.
Lumenick says, "I've had root canals that were more enjoyable than 'Margot at the Wedding,' Noah Baumbach's hugely pretentious, ugly and annoying follow-up to 'The Squid and the Whale.' I thought the earlier film was a tad overpraised, but it's a masterpiece compared to 'Margot,' a ham-fisted, faux French film peopled with the kind of self-absorbed literary neurotics you'd immediately flee from at a party. Like his sometimes collaborator Wes Anderson, Baumbach seems to be using his movies to endlessly work through his childhood traumas. I'd be happier if they both found a good shrink and stopped subjecting us to navel-gazing bores like 'The Darjeeling Limited' and 'Margot at the Wedding.'"
You're on the wrong site, Claudius.
Posted by: Marshall | November 19, 2007 at 02:20 AM
Does it matter if it gets a nod or not? How many of the films that have won Oscars are remembered today. It is not whether it is nominated or not, it is whether next year and the year after that people will remember the work this director and his actresses put into it. Most of the movies being buzzed about don't even get the kind of critical applause Kidman and Leigh are getting. Baumbach doesn't need awards anymore, he is being known as a guy bold enough to put whatever he wants onscreen and that is better than any award. Did Stanley Kubrick ever win anything?
Posted by: IClavdivs | November 16, 2007 at 03:19 PM