(2007) Noah Baumbach's unfunny comedy of dysfunctionality involving sad, pathetic characters, somewhat in the loose, improvisational style of Robert Altman with a tongue-in-cheek nod to David Lynch. As if accidentally falling into a swimming pool, we are inside this movie from the outset without credits or any other warning or introduction.

Margot (Nicole Kidman) and her young-teenage son Claude (Zane Pais) travel to the home of Margot's sister, Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh), for Pauline's wedding. The house belonged to their parents, which Pauline inherited. Their younger sister, "poor Becky," and their mother are expected but never arrive.

They meet Pauline's fiancé Malcolm (Jack Black), play crochet, bicker and badger. At Pauline's urging Margot climbs a tree, struggles with an insect inside her ear, and gets stuck, requiring rescue by the fire department. This tree, whose roots have spread into the neighbor's yard, is a point of contention with the Voglers, who demand it be cut down. Later Margot will sneak over to these neighbors, witnessing the slaughter of a pig for barbequing.

Comparing their youthful sexual exploits, the sisters speculate as to what influence their father's whipping them while wearing only his BVDs might have had on them. Pauline entrusts a secret to Margot - whom she often says to others is her best friend though they rarely see each other or communicate - that she's pregnant and hasn't told Malcolm yet. Pauline shares the secret with Claude with whom she shares too much (he reads her diary, they sometimes sleep in the same bed, and he tells her one morning that he has just masturbated), who then reveals the fact to Pauline's daughter Ingrid (Flora Cross) with Malcolm being among the last to know.

Malcolm takes the news well; Pauline asks him to be silent and supportive. Margot attempts to discourage Pauline from going through with the wedding, saying that Malcolm's coarseness is beneath her.

The Vogler boy confronts the cousins, asking Claude if he's gay before attacking and biting him on the cheek. Malcolm stands beside Pauline in her face off with the neighbors, supportive but too silent.

They visit another neighbor, Dick Koosman (Ciarán Hinds), a writer, as is Margot and her love interest; Margot is considering leaving her husband. Uninvited Claude's father Jim makes an unexpected appearance and angers Margot by stopping to help someone beside the road with an injured dog. In the local library as a public event, Koosman questions Margot about her recent fiction and its autobiographical relevance, which upsets Margot; others regard Dick's probing to have been cruel as well.

Pauline confides to Claude: "It's hard to find people you like more than your family." Malcolm shaves off his mustache and begins using a chain saw on the massively offending tree. Pauline asks Malcolm: "Have you ever cheated on me?" At first he says he hasn't, but then he admits to having brushed lips with Dick Koosman's teenage daughter Maisy, tongues touching - actually, okay, making out with her - but just once and never again.

The tree crashes down on the wedding tent (no one's hurt); Dick comes after Malcolm for molesting his daughter; Margot and Claude with Pauline and Ingrid depart for town, leaving Malcolm behind. It ends with whimpering and a bus ride.

As we climb out of the pool, soaking wet, we may laugh about this embarrassment afterward.

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Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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