Thursday 29 January 2009

Thursday

There's been a slight delay in posting recently as I have been busy finishing my PhD and being ill. Both required a lot of time. The PhD is done, but I am still a little ill. Anyway, I have been watching films. I want to talk about Margot at the Wedding first. It's by Noah Baumbach, his latest movie since The Squid and the Whale. Naturally there was some anticipation for this film, and a lot of people felt let down. It stars Nicole Kidman as a successful writer who goes to see her not-so-successful sister, Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is about to marry an even less successful loser, Jack Black. There is the same, direct acerbic wit as The Squid and the Whale, but it lacks that film's dynamic. There was little variation on pace, or rather too much of it, so that there were no clear highs and lows to follow. It felt monotone. I also think there have been far too many films about writers, especially about writers in the family (I'm thinking of The Savages for some reason). So, this film just fell frustratingly short of being good. It also fails to finish satisfactorily, leaving you rather disappointed. This doesn't mean, however, that I'm not looking forward to his next film.

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