Margot at the Wedding (2007) Margot at the Wedding (2007)

See also: _Index | Plot Structure (Margot at the Wedding) | Backbeats (Margot at the Wedding)

Noah Baumbach's third feature as writer-director, a chamber drama about two estranged sisters reuniting at the family beach house on the eve of one sister's wedding. Released by Paramount Vantage in late 2007, between The Squid and the Whale (2005) and Greenberg (2010).

Premise

Margot, a Manhattan novelist with a sharp eye and a sharper tongue, travels by train to Long Island with her eleven-year-old son Claude to attend the wedding of her sister Pauline, who lives in their childhood home.b1 b3 b4 Pauline's groom is Malcolm, an unemployed musician/artist whose unsuitability Margot registers immediately.b6 Pauline is pregnant and hiding it.b5 b8 A tree leans dangerously over the property; the neighbors (the Voglers) want it cut down.b3 Margot is also conducting an affair with the local writer Dick Koosman, who is scheduled to interview her at a bookstore the same weekend.b12 b16

Over a few days the family pressure compounds: a tree-climbing reenactment from Margot and Pauline's childhood,b9 a public bookstore interview that breaks Margot's composure,b32 a swim and dinner at the Koosmans',b13 b15 the discovery that Malcolm has kissed Dick's teenage daughter Maisy,b35 a beating, a brake failure on the drive home,b36 an aborted wedding that doesn't quite get aborted,b39 and a bus stop.b41 b42

Cast

  • Nicole Kidman as Margot — the novelist sister
  • Jennifer Jason Leigh as Pauline — Margot's sister, the bride, pregnant
  • Jack Black as Malcolm — Pauline's groom, unemployed musician/artist
  • Zane Pais as Claude — Margot's eleven-year-old son
  • Flora Cross as Ingrid — Pauline's pre-teen daughter
  • Ciarán Hinds as Dick Koosman — Margot's writer-affair, the bookstore interviewer
  • John Turturro as Jim — Margot's husband, Claude's father (in Vermont)
  • Halley Feiffer as Maisy — Dick's teenage daughter

Crew

  • Director / Writer: Noah Baumbach
  • Cinematographer: Harris Savides
  • Editor: Carol Littleton
  • Producers: Scott Rudin

Setting

The family beach house on eastern Long Island in fall, formerly the home of the sisters' parents and now Pauline's. The house is large, cluttered, woody, with the contested tree leaning over the property. The Voglers — eccentric working-class neighbors — share a property line. Most of the film occurs at the house; the bookstore interview is in a nearby town; the climax is at a small-town bus stop.

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