It's too bad when the best parts of a film are the names attached to it - and here, in Margot at the Wedding, that is certainly the case.

The story tells the tale of Margot (Kidman), a selfish, manipulative, dramatic, and bitchy woman who clearly has issues. She and her sister, Pauline (Jennifer Jason Lee) haven't spoken in a very long time, but Margot has been invited to Pauline's wedding, and so she (along with her son, Claude) returns to her childhood home to attend the festivities. Festive the situation is not, however, and it doesn't take long for the sisters to start acting the way that many often do: fighting and laughing, while also loving and hating one another, precisely at the same time.

Secondary players to the family drama story include Jack Black as Pauline's fiance, Malcolm - as well as Zane Pais as Claude and Flora Cross as Pauline's daughter, Ingrid. Just like many of these "slice of life" independent films, there is an undercurrent of disturbing energy throughout the film; early on, there are references to child abuse (Margot and Pauline clearly have had reasons for becoming so fucked up), and the relationships that Margot has created with everyone else in her life - her son, her estranged husband, her lover, her sister, her soon-to-be brother-in-law - are deeply flawed. Typically, though (at least in more engaging flicks), flawed characters are also created with even just a tinge of empathy; not here. Instead, not only do we not care for Margot, we basically despise her - even despite Kidman's luminous performance (she doesn't have to do anything at all in order to be engaging; she truly is the quintessential movie star), which, if you think about it, says quite a lot. (Warning! As an aside, I must also point out that there are some disturbing references and scenes involving animals getting harmed - which I truly hate in a film.) In the end, Margot at the Wedding was a bit haphazard, not entirely sure - I think - of what kind of film it wanted to be: introspective, funny, dramatic, or even one of those "for no good reason" type of films. One minute a character is likeable, the next they're not... almost as if they're bipolar. I'll tell you this: if this is supposed to be a "slice of life" film, let me just be eternally grateful that it's not my life.

With that said, there are a few genuinely funny moments, spearheaded mostly by (no surprise here) Jack Black. And, the give-and-take relationship between the sisters is at the very least realistic - even if in a very messed up way. As one of the characters describes it in the film, the characters are "loathsome" but possessing a "strange sympathy." Yes, in a way, this is true, but - with a cast overrun with self-destructive, difficult to like characters - it sure doesn't make me care any more for Margot or for what happens in her story next.

Margot at the Wedding starring Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Jack Black
Paramount Pictures, 2008. Rated R. Available online at Amazon.com.

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