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Margot at the Wedding
Paramount Vantage

Margot at the Wedding reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 66 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
6.0 out of 10
based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 46 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for sexual content and language

Starring Nicole Kidman, Jack Black, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and John Turturro

Margot at the Wedding is a sharply observed portrait of a family in distress. Noah Baumbach's latest project is an unflinchingly honest story about coming to terms with one's family and oneself, a journey that is both funny and heartbreaking. The film stars Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Jack Black. (Paramount Vantage)


GENRE(S): Comedy  |  Drama  
WRITTEN BY: Noah Baumbach  
DIRECTED BY: Noah Baumbach  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: February 19, 2008 
Theatrical: November 16, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 92 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Baumbach’s achievement stings. It also has the sureness of tone and direction of a Chekhov story.
Read Full Review
91
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Which brings us back to Kidman, who really IS sensational here.
Read Full Review
90
The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
Noah Baumbach has followed up his acclaimed 2005 breakthrough "The Squid and the Whale" with another wryly observed, giddily cringe-inducing, bracingly original winner.
Read Full Review
90
Film Threat Niki Foster
A brilliantly executed film that, like many real-life family reunions, is alternately painful, funny, and moving.
Read Full Review
88
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Dissenters who see this film as a wallow in self-absorption aren't paying attention. Baumbach is acutely attuned to the droll mind games of smart people who only think they're impervious to feeling.
Read Full Review
88
Premiere Glenn Kenny
Margot is a fleet, strangely enjoyable film, animated by the acuity of Baumbach's perceptions and -- this helps a lot -- the frequent laugh-out-loud wit of his dialogue.
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83
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Margot has a kitchen-sink realism that's genuinely unsettling, like a John Cassavetes movie populated by the hyper-articulate. If nothing else, Baumbach deserves credit for refusing to cozy up to the audience.
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83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
While Margot's casual cruelty and the scenes of squirmy discomfort are sometimes painful to watch, the rendering of this disastrous family reunion is seriously, savagely droll.
Read Full Review
80
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Watching Kidman, Leigh and -- in his nutty, damn-the-torpedoes way -- Black as they torment, confound and torture one another amounts to a vicarious thrill ride in human behavior.
Read Full Review
80
LA Weekly Scott Foundas
Margot at the Wedding gives its characters (and us) something to laugh about.
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80
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
One of the dark pleasures of "Margot" is watching Kidman and Leigh inhabit these two roles with a fierce passion.
Read Full Review
80
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Hysterically hyperbolic and unpleasant if still witty dissection of family traumas.
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80
Newsweek David Ansen
The cruelly funny Margot at the Wedding shares many of the virtues of "Squid"--it's psychologically astute, sociologically dead on, refreshingly unformulaic--but it's a considerably tougher, less ingratiating movie. People who insist on likable, "sympathetic" protagonists may find it a bitter pill to swallow.
Read Full Review
80
The New York Times A.O. Scott
Frequently brilliant, finally baffling film.
Read Full Review
75
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Obviously a movie made by smart and talented people but sometimes you can outsmart yourself.
Read Full Review
75
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Bitter, brittle, condescending and petty, the titular character of Margot at the Wedding, fabulously played by Nicole Kidman, is a successful short story writer who resents other people's happiness.
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75
Boston Globe Ty Burr
A broader work than Baumbach's last movie, and it's funnier, too, even as you gasp at the misbehavior.
Read Full Review
75
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Some call Margot a comedy. For me, it is a tragedy impaled by comic moments.
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75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
So it goes with the family in this movie. All of its members are engaged in a mutual process of shooting one another down. Watching Margot at the Wedding is like slowing for a gaper's block.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
This is Baumbach's best yet.
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75
Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
The overall effect of the movie is to make you wish there were a statute of limitations on how long maladjusted adults are allowed to blame their parents before it's OK to holler, "Get over it, people!"
Read Full Review
70
Variety Todd McCarthy
This study of a disastrous reunion of two sisters feels more like a collection of arresting scenes than a fully conceived and developed drama.
Read Full Review
70
Village Voice Jim Ridley
Hard as it may be to imagine a comedy that inflicts all the psychic torment of "Cries and Whispers," Baumbach has pulled off a more psychologically acute--and funnier--version of the Bergman pastiches that Woody Allen attempted 30 years ago, with a jumpy, nerve-rattling rhythm all his own.
Read Full Review
70
Slate Dana Stevens
It's too bad Baumbach's movie is already shot, edited, and up there on the screen, because after a few rounds with a red pencil, it could really have been something worth watching.
Read Full Review
63
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
There's plenty to admire in the performances and atmosphere, but the writer-director needed someone to pull him up short.
Read Full Review
60
Empire Liz Beardsworth
A sharply observed but bleak examination of family dysfunction, anchored by solid performances.
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60
New York Magazine David Edelstein
Margot at the Wedding doesn’t develop; it just skips from one squirmy scene to the next.
Read Full Review
50
ReelViews James Berardinelli
While there are a lot of similarities between Rohmer's body of work and Baumbach's latest, the most crucial aspect linking the films is a difference: Rohmer's love of conversation and languorous pace engages the intellect; Baumbach provides a good alternative to an over-the-counter sleep aid.
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50
The New Yorker David Denby
The characters observe no boundaries, and neither does the movie--Baumbach hasn’t worked out the struggle between speaking and withholding, as Bergman did. People simply blurt out scathing remarks, so there’s little power in the revelations and betrayals. “Margot” is sensually as well as dramatically impoverished.
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50
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
For Kidman, it is a one-note performance dictated by the script. Leigh had more dimension to work with and gives the film's most honest performance. Meanwhile, Black, whose job is mostly to deliver comic relief, is completely lost - that is to say, not funny - in the material.
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50
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
It's a shame to see such dedicated performers flay their psyches in the service of such fundamentally shallow material.
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50
USA Today Claudia Puig
Watching this movie feels a bit like being trapped on a weekend holiday with an unpredictable and seriously unhappy group of people.
Read Full Review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
These characters don't seem illuminating at all – just damned annoying and, ultimately, dead boring.
Read Full Review
40
Austin Chronicle Steve Davis
The next time he (Baumbach) attempts something similar, he might take care to lessen the bile and amplify the heart.
Read Full Review
30
Time Richard Schickel
This is moviemaking for people who don't much like movies unless they are -- you know -- "serious." It is visually inert. It appears to be taking up small-scaled, yet emotionally resonant issues, but does not actually define them sharply or bring them to firm conclusions.
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25
New York Post Lou Lumenick
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."
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0
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Margot at the Wedding is a Christmas gift for high-class depressives: a compendium of malaise fit for an L.L. Bean catalog.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 46 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ray S. gave it a2:
All the characters in this flick need to be in therapy. No insights gleaned from their rantings. Cannot recommend this travesty.

John N. gave it a5:
The film is well acted, but the characters are so abrasive that I can't really say I enjoyed watching it.

Jason F. gave it a10:
Baumbach's has an incredible gift of giving genuine life to characters, their flaws glaring and painful even as you fall in love them.

Brett R gave it a9:
Nicole Kidman is back in a big way with fantastic choices and Jennifer Jason Leigh is an amazing compliment to her playing her sister. I found the writing fascinating, though I found the subplot of "coming of age" of Kidman's son a little tired.

Jay H. gave it a6:
Better than average dysfunctional family film. Well written and the cast is very good, especially Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black. It has an appealing offbeat quality to it, thanks to a good job by director Noah Baumbach.

Mike D. gave it a1:
This was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Not just a chick flick, but a pointless, self-indulgent chick flick.

Orlando gave it an8:
Fearless acting, superbly written and excellent directing in this outstanding film about family interactions, parenting, and the natures of family loving.

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