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Rating of
2/4
Not Fully Realized
Franz Patrick - wrote on 05/10/2008
I'm glad that Nicole Kidman still decides to appear in small films once in a while. Even though this is one of her less memorable small movies, it's interesting nonetheless because Kidman's character had some sort of intense complexity. She loves her son but she fails to show deep affection toward him (in fact, she outright insults him), she cares for her sister yet their relationship is troublesome at best (due to sibling rivalry), and her unstable marriage is always in the back of her mind which negatively affects everything else she does. These three factors are at the forefront of the story, which had equal focus most of the time. Still, what this film really lacks is some sort of a gratifying resolution, not for the audience, but for its characters. At the end, I got tired of how …
Rating of
3/4
Difficult film, yet masterfully performed
newmans_own - wrote on 11/23/2007
There is one thing that’s sure about this film; the characters are not meant to be liked. Baumbach goes out of his way to make sure the audience detests nearly every character in the film. Margot is selfish and off-putting. The only way she can booster her own self-esteem is by knocking down others; she laughingly comments that her sister cannot make eye contact with others, that her son smells bad and is growing stupid, and in more than one case accuses a potential attacker of being retarded. Pauline and Malcolm (the fiancé) don’t fare much better either; each of them are severely complicated individuals whose flaws seem to inflate in Margot’s presence. Whenever one of these characters finally breaks down and reaches out for help, it is far from sympathetic. It is …
