Shotgun 'Wedding'

Noah Baumbach's newest film isn't a great dysfunctional-family drama like his first major success "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," which he co-wrote with Wes Anderson, nor did it quite meet the expectations fostered by his last movie "The Squid and the Whale," as a result of a few missteps. Still, interesting characters go a long way toward mending this film's flaws.\nThe movie starts with a rickety train ride that introduces Margot (Nicole Kidman) and her quirky son Claude (Zane Pais). Both are traveling through rural New York to visit Margot's sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who is days away from a second marriage to a guitar-strumming lay-about named Malcolm (Jack Black). Margot and Pauline's relationship is strained, and the family tension waxes and wanes in the days before the ceremony.\n"Margot" doesn't focus on extraneous details, which only serve to reflect and highlight characters' personal turmoil. Scenes are spliced in without transition, just as Margot manically switches trains of thought and Pauline makes irrational decisions about her love life. Even Claude has inherited a bit of a capricious personality, leading his mother to speculate that he is autistic. \nUnlike the female leads, Malcolm serves no cinematic purpose other than that of a schmuck, literally and figuratively, for the two women to rub off on. Also, as he does in most movies, Jack Black strips to his skivvies and prances around with his beer gut preceding him by at least three frames -- an almost-good-enough reason to stay away from "Margot."\nAnd maybe I'm being puritanical, but this movie included much pointless nudity and sex, not just Black's. It's hard to believe a woman would take the time to put on pants and a shirt but then walk around without buttoning the shirt. Having Kidman simulate masturbation on-screen also seems like a cheap way to illustrate her character's mental loneliness. \nMuch is awry in this movie, but the interactions between Margot, Pauline and Claude -- at times darkly humorous, infuriating and never dull -- push "Margot" toward watchable. The Ryder's cheap ticket prices help, too.