Hello to everyone who reads this blog - good to see all three of you again! Firstly, I must apologize for my silence of late. Some unexpected stuff came up which limited my net access. A lot has happened in JJL land since my last little missive in July!
Margot at the Wedding had its low-key world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on 1 September, and last week it screened at the higher-profile Toronto Film Festival. Both festivals were attended by Noah and Jennifer (pics above), though sadly Nicole Kidman and Jack Black couldn't make them due to other film-shooting commitments. Perhaps they will be on board for the New York Film Festival screening which takes place on 7 October.
The two-minute trailer we saw in June seemed to emphasize the charm and comedy, but word is out that this film is actually a lot darker, colder and angrier than it first appears. Much darker than The Squid and the Whale, allegedly, and that film was hardly your typical breezy indie dramedy. The comedy in this one is said to be black as tar, and the drama to be bordering on the tragic. Some have voiced concern about the principal characters being far too neurotic, unsympathetic, self-absorbed and, well, whiny for mainstream audiences to want to spend time with. Nicole Kidman's character, Margot Zeller, is said to be a monstrous egomaniac who casually makes cruel, insensitive remarks to her sister, is shamelessly snobby and xenophobic, is a lousy mother to her son, and is not above exploiting her unhappy childhood in the successful short stories she writes. JJL's Pauline is needy, insecure, and full of her own bitter resentments and unresolved anger. Is Baumbach saying, "Jeff Daniels wasn't enough of a pompous asshole for you? Wait till you get a load of these two bitches!"? Alienating mainstream audiences who'd rather flock to 300 is one thing, but there is also concern in the award-prognosticating blogosphere that Margot's dark, bitter nature could hurt its chances of getting noticed by the ever-conservative Academy voters. The Academy do like their indie dramedies of late, but even Alexander Payne's excellent Sideways and About Schmidt had a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down; You Can Count on Me was tough and honest, but Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo's troubled siblings were essentially likeable, good people. Margot probably won't be as cynically difficult to take as, say, Todd Solondz' Happiness - a film which really repelled and angered as many critics as it impressed (and which Leigh, incidentally, auditioned for) - but it does look like it will be a firmly divisive film.
In an interview with the Toronto Sun newspaper last week, Leigh had this to say: "In fact, people can leave the cinema very, very agitated and almost unable to speak. Or they're angry, very stirred up. [The film is] about things you don't want to acknowledge about yourself, that you don't want to see, and I think that can make people very angry." Oh Jen… you're a great actress, but you still have no clue how to sell a film... or maybe you just don't want to? Either way, Margot at the Wedding looks like the most interesting film Leigh has been involved in for a long, long time (Kidman and Black too, for that matter). This is, after all, the métier in which Jennifer works best – lost, troubled characters, messy interpersonal dynamics, scathing emotional honesty and open wounds, dark humour, and no easy answers... ever. This is the story of her career.
And now a few of the best reviews the film has gotten so far... including the most exciting raves JJL has gotten in years!
"The absolute highlight of the daring film is the loving way in which Baumbach directs his spouse Leigh to perhaps the most nuanced, relaxed role of her accomplished career. The actress has been known to get down and dirty with her roles, and really disappear; but here she seems so poised and ordinary, it's easy to forget that she is acting. Margot is the showier part, but as is the case here, and in countless other films in which people take the more quiet supporting roles; showy doesn't always equal better. Leigh has somehow never been up for an Oscar, despite at least ten viable roles throughout the last seventeen years and it is beyond a crime she wasn’t up for one in 1995 for her tour-de-force in Georgia. This year, hopefully will not add to the shameful list of egregious awards snubs towards one of the most challenging, honest actresses I can think of. If anyone has paid their dues, it is Leigh." - http://www.popmatters.com/pm/blogs/notes-from-the-road-post/48399/tiff-07-day-five-contemporary-classics
"She has always been a performer of rare gifts, with an unerring instinct to make the unexpected but absolutely right choice in a line reading or a bit of business. And as the bruised, resentful sister, she's perfect."- http://blog.nj.com/whitty/2007/09/casting_about.html
"Leigh, who is always a pleasure to watch, should be up for the Oscar that has eluded her for more than fifteen years (in a just world). Her Pauline is one of the actress's finest creations: earthy, natural, and soft; a welcome change from the risky actress known for her portrayals of intense, damaged women. The range and maturity that Leigh conveys is astounding." -http://www.popmatters.com/pm/blogs/notes-from-the-road-post/48608/tiff-07-the-wrap-up-woman-of-the-year
"Brilliantly assisting him [Baumbach] in bringing it all to the forefront are Kidman and, especially Leigh, who render brittle, hilarious yet moving performances... Leigh, meanwhile, gives one of the best, and certainly most intriguingly complex performances of her career, as Pauline, a perennial lost soul who, despite all the friction, still idealizes her sister as a potential best friend."- http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film/reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=9712
"Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh both turn in energetic - and possibly award-ready - performances that are at times difficult to watch for the way they so nakedly show people at their worst." - http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/torontofilmfestival/2007/09/chop-shop-and-m.html
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