Baumbach takes on sibling rivalry in "Margot"

By Michael Rechtshaffen

TELLURIDE, Colo. (Hollywood Reporter) - Again fearlessly navigating those perilous waters known as family dynamics, filmmaker Noah Baumbach has followed up his acclaimed 2005 drama "The Squid and the Whale" with another wryly observed, giddily cringe-inducing, bracingly original winner.

Where the previous film took its cue from Baumbach's own upbringing, "Margot at the Wedding" probes the terminally dysfunctional relationship between two sisters, played without a safety net by Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

The two actresses do some of their best work here, while Baumbach gives further evidence as having one of the most original -- and affecting -- comic sensibilities in the business.

In the wake of its screenings at Telluride and the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival, the Paramount Vantage release should gain serious awards-season traction ahead of its late fall arrival in theaters.

From the title to some of the plotting, there are affectionate nods in the direction of Eric Rohmer's "Pauline at the Beach" to be found here, but the tone is unmistakably Baumbach's.

Kidman's Margot Zeller is an outspoken New York-based short-story writer traveling with her newly adolescent son, Claude (Zane Pais), back to her old family home, where her estranged sister, Pauline (Leigh), is about to be married.

Never one to mince words, Margot makes it clear to anyone who'll listen that she doesn't approve of Pauline's fiance, Malcolm (a very amusing Jack Black), an aspiring musician and artist who seems intent on making a career out of unemployment.

Although technically more of a free spirit, Pauline proves to be as weighted down by all the family baggage as Margot, and their proximity in the same geographical space can lead to no good.