Margot at the Wedding

Noah Baumbach’s follow-up to 2005’s The Squid and the Whale retains traces of his breakthrough’s squirmworthy fixations. In fact, the awkward social fumbling of the new movie’s pubescent lad could pass as outtakes from the director’s Brooklynbased film à clef in a pinch. But in terms of complexity, Margot at the Wedding is a leap forward. It’s one of the most emotionally mature American movies ever made about emotionally immature people.

Flighty Pauline (Leigh) is getting married to her boorish beau (Black), and after years of mutually cold shoulders, reaches out to her sister Margot (Kidman). A writer with a draconian judgmental streak, Margot brims over with passive-aggressive bile, so any hatchets will be buried in shallow graves. Any progress toward healing is accompanied by several baby steps backward.

Black’s manic manchild persona is used wisely, and Leigh delivers a typically brilliant bruisedpeach performance. Kidman, however, is the one who hits a career high; brittle and needy, her Margot brings out the worst in everybody and the best in a star who’s usually just called on to look glamorous or worried.

David Fear, Time Out New York