Margot at the Wedding

Quite a comedown from The Squid and the Whale, Noah Baumbach’s new film boasts distinctive performances from Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh (his wife) as a pair of close but equally-impossible sisters, trying to get back together -- and at each other -- after an estrangement. Leigh is getting married to not-at-all-lovable loser Jack Black, and Kidman comes to the wedding -- along with her young teenage son (Zane Pais, performing manfully) -- mainly to talk her out of it. Their relationship is believably quirky and contentious, but the rest of the film does not come off at all. So after casting Laura Linney and then Nicole Kidman as his mom, maybe it’s time for Baumbach to move on from his fraught maternal connection. This was notable as the worst-looking film I’ve seen in ages, though maybe exacerbated by dim projection. It’s set on some undefined East Coast island, but conveys no sense of place at all, either outdoors or in. I appreciate the aspiration, but Noah -- just between me and you -- this ain’t Eric Rohmer. (2007, Images, n.) *6* (MC-66.)