Director: Noah Baumbach
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 1.5
Self-absorbed Margot (Nicole Kidman) visits her neurotic sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and future brother-in-law (Jack Black) days before her wedding, but their revolting personalities clash with each other and it becomes a hysterical nightmare. Digressive to a fatal degree, the picture can't keep focused on anything for too long a period of time - Baumbach's need to be quirky clashes with his somber tone, and the weary-eyed desperation in the face of Jennifer Jason Leigh doesn't go with Jack Black's refusal to take much of this seriously (he's almost solely responsible for the chuckles). What aided the smugness of The Squid in the Whale were the performances of the two boys to compensate for the irksome Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney characters - now imagine a picture where everyone's conceited (and son Zane Pais, dressed up to look like a teenage Nick Drake, is just pathetic). For the record, this is the second film this year to show characters shedding their personal baggage by literally shedding their luggage/handbags - first the boys in The Darjeeling Limited, now Kidman leaves her purse behind as she runs to catch a bus (what, did Baumbach and Wes Anderson take the same class in Blatant Symbolism?).
