Margot at the Wedding

For those who haven't heard of it yet, Margot at the Wedding is the eagerly awaited new film by Jennifer's husband, writer-director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Kicking and Screaming). According to its IMDb plot synopsis, Margot at the Wedding is "a sharply observed portrait of a family. This film is an unflinchingly honest story about coming to terms with one's family and oneself, a comedic and heartbreaking journey."

Nicole Kidman plays Margot, a troubled, unhappily married woman who hasn't spoken to her older sister Pauline (Leigh) in a few years. Both sisters share a painful past, having been beaten by their father and been in therapy. On the eve of Pauline's wedding to Malcolm (Jack Black) – a man she disapproves of – Margot decides to try and bury the hatchet by attending the ceremony with her son. The film also stars John Turturro as Kidman's husband and Ciarán Hinds as her lover. Even Leigh's real-life mother, the Emmy-nominated screenwriter Barbara Turner (Georgia, Pollock, The Company), will have a cameo appearance as "Aunt Becky".

With Baumbach on board as writer and director, Kidman as co-star, and an acknowledged debt of influence to the great French auteur Eric Rohmer (Pauline at the Beach, Claire's Knee, My Night at Maud's), something tells me this will be an exciting project for us JJL fans. Baumbach's razor-sharp script for The Squid and the Whale deservedly earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, and propelled Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney into career-defining work. Early reports from people who've read the Margot script have been very positive, indicating that it may be the strongest showcase for both Kidman and Leigh's talents in a long time.

The film is hotly tipped to premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September. It opens in NY and LA on 3 October, gets a limited US release on 12 October and finally goes wide on 25 December.

Welcome!

Hello readers, and a warm welcome to a little project I've wanted to get around to making for a while now. I have long held the opinion that Jennifer Jason Leigh is the best American actress of her generation, and certainly the most underrated. Despite starring in over 60 feature films, stage plays and TV productions since the late 1970s, and winning critical plaudits from the beginning, she has somehow eluded the wider attention she clearly merits in terms of her talent. As a famously private and self-effacing person, maybe she prefers it that way. She claims to find it a compliment that people don't recognize her from one film to the next, and she religiously avoids the politics of the Hollywood social scene at all costs.

To respect Jennifer's cherished privacy, this blog will not pay much attention to the details of her personal life. Instead I am intending it as a celebratory tribute to the woman's great body of work. A body of work which has touched a small, devoted army of fans very deeply, and which deserves to be remembered in this era of plastic, over-exposed stars sorely lacking in originality.

Over the next few months, I will be posting news relating to Leigh's eagerly awaited new film Margot at the Wedding, written and directed by her real-life husband Noah Baumbach and co-starring no less than Nicole Kidman. Something tells me this will be a special project for us JJL fans!

In the meantime I will be posting all manner of Jenny bits and pieces to tide us over, having a look back at some of her past acting triumphs, and hopefully building a nice photo gallery.

Tralala, Sadie Flood, Susie, Dorothy Parker, Kristen, Amy Archer, Hedy, Allegra Geller, Stacy, Sally Nash, Selena, Blondie O'Hara... this one's for you.