Despite the negative – actually down right dreadful reviews, I was still very eager to see what Noah Baumbach was going to do his fourth time around with Margot at the Wedding. And it seems I’m not one of a small group. On this, the second weekend of its release, Margot was sold out for the 8:20 showing at the Angelika and was shown to a packed theater at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas at 9:30. I wasn’t shocked by this but I was a little surprised. Baumbach took a beating from most of the critics, both in the papers and on the tubes, for Margot but apparently his past work was still strong enough to bring ‘em in, which I am not at all mad at. I loved Mr. Jealousy when I stumbled upon it randomly on IFC a few years ago and had pretty much the same experience with The Squid and the Whale except that I saw it on Starz, liked it a little more and went on a two month hunt to find the DVD. I haven’t seen Kicking and Screaming yet because I didn’t know until recently that Baumbach directed it and every time I tuned in to a scene while it was on cable it looked like Singles to me which I cannot tolerate, but I will most likely be buying the DVD at some point tonight just for comparison’s sake. Anyway, back to Margot at the Wedding… When I read the reviews I thought to myself, “They probably just didn’t get it” because Wes Anderson’s latest, The Darjeerling Limited, got mixed reviews but managed to entertain me thoroughly. And the two of them (Anderson and Baumbach) always get criticized for trying to be “too smart” or “too clever” which I always thought was kind of off base. That is, until now.

Baumbach didn’t reach far out of his repertoire here (which is the good thing) as he put together a family of sharp witted “literary types” who have no verbal filter or awareness of the feelings of others, and their children who are destined to repeat the same behaviors. Margot and her son, Claude travel to Hampton Bays and reunite with her sister Pauline and her daughter, Ingrid for Pauline’s wedding – chaos ensues. Without rehashing the plot I’ll just get straight into why I think Noah missed the mark on this one.

While for the most part the dialogue is as sharp and engaging as you would have expected, there are too many instances in the film where it’s clear that Baumbach is either losing his sense of where to draw the line or is content with filling his script with unscrupulous inside jokes for him and his friends to enjoy on the big screen. The only reason I think I was able to remain attentive throughout was that the plot does manage to stay its course without trying to do too many things at once.

You get a decent performance from Nicole Kidman (actually decent may be somewhat of an understatement. She is very convincing as a neurotic, self centered projector) and a pretty good one (though ruined by Baumbach with a completely pointless line in the last scene) from Zane Pais, who plays her son. I was actually interested in finding out what would happen with their relationship in the end. Jennifer Jason Leigh, on the other hand gave a pretty dry performance which could have been the way the character was meant to be portrayed, though that doesn’t do much to help the actors she’s sharing the screen with. Jack Black’s comedic capabilities were much needed and well placed as he makes it easier to make it through to the transitions in the plot seeing as how he’s given one scene every ten to fifteen minutes to do what Jack Black does. But at the same time he never really meshes into these surroundings and toward the end his character just becomes plain silly. I think the reason Black was casted was because his character, Malcolm, is the guy who doesn’t fit in so they went and got… the guy who doesn’t fit in. Makes sense on paper but it didn’t play out all that well. Someone a little drier like Rainn Wilson might have worked just as well here. Or even someone of a higher caliber like John C. Reilly would have been nice (I understand that might be reaching).

Ingrid, Leigh’s daughter, who is played by Flora Cross (can’t remember where I’ve seen her before but I know I have) is pretty much unnecessary to the film as far as I’m concerned and the one line she had that got a significant reaction from the crowd was about as contrived and manufactured as I hope to here in a good writers movie. Halley Feiffer’s character however, is right there in the middle between “could’ve done without her” and “small piece to the puzzle, yet key nonetheless”. After seeing her here and in Squid it’s safe to say that she’s got a pretty limited range but for some reason I enjoy her in both films. She’s the girl in your high school who you probably should be trying to sleep with but don’t look at much because she’s borderline homely. Actually, that’s exactly who she was in The Squid and the Whale. But anyway; after going in with blinders on and ear plugs in and determined to give it a fair shot, Margot wound up being exactly what I hoped it would not – Noah Baumbach’s The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.