Margot at the Wedding
Paramount Vantage | Release Date: November 16, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
9
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Baumbach’s achievement stings. It also has the sureness of tone and direction of a Chekhov story. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Which brings us back to Kidman, who really IS sensational here. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterMichael 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 ThreatNiki Foster
A brilliantly executed film that, like many real-life family reunions, is alternately painful, funny, and moving. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter 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
PremiereGlenn 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. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott 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. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean 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
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Frequently brilliant, finally baffling film. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid 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
Washington PostDesson 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
Los Angeles TimesKenneth 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
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Margot at the Wedding gives its characters (and us) something to laugh about. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Hysterically hyperbolic and unpleasant if still witty dissection of family traumas. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Obviously a movie made by smart and talented people but sometimes you can outsmart yourself. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Some call Margot a comedy. For me, it is a tragedy impaled by comic moments. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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 ChronicleMick LaSalle
This is Baumbach's best yet. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc 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
75
Boston GlobeTy 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
Miami HeraldRene 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. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd 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 VoiceJim 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
SlateDana 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 ObserverLawrence 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
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Margot at the Wedding doesn’t develop; it just skips from one squirmy scene to the next. Read full review
60
EmpireLiz Beardsworth
A sharply observed but bleak examination of family dysfunction, anchored by solid performances. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid 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. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames 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. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
It's a shame to see such dedicated performers flay their psyches in the service of such fundamentally shallow material. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia 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
New York Daily NewsJack 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. 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 ChronicleSteve 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
TimeRichard 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. Read full review
25
New York PostLou 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." Read full review
0
Baltimore SunMichael 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
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