Quite a few reviews of Margot at the Wedding mention how dislikeable its characters are. I don't really mind this myself, just as long as I detect some sense of human truth in the portrayals, and this is indeed offered here. Director Noah Baumbach has a few particular gifts, including the ability to recognize, re-create, and make realistic -- without necessarily belittling -- the kind of human monsters we all recognize, those beings who act out their insecurities by imposing their presence on others, with, of course, family members always being their most unlucky victims.

Margot (Nicole Kidman) is not unlike Jeff Daniels's character from Baumbach's previous film, The Squid and the Whale, and Kidman gives a similarly effective performance. But Margot at the Wedding lacks Squid's perspective -- the former movie's protagonist was Jesse Eisenberg's confused teenage son, who goes through a tough development in the story's course, while here it's the monster herself, who barely has the screen time to register the havoc she hath wrought (the young kid this time, her son, played by Zane Pais, is more of a cipher casualty).

Also, Margot is hurt by its last act, one that comes across as the cinematic equivalent of arms flailing -- in particular events surrounding the tree at the end veer into the melodramatic and "melo-comic" (for lack of a better way of putting it), thereby foregoing the film's early sources of credibility, which resided in its character-centric realism. This gives a 90-minute movie the curious feel of overstaying its welcome.

Still, for the nuggets of insight to be gleaned from the good performances of Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Jack Black, Margot may be worthy of the curiosity felt by those interested in seeing Baumbach's continued exploration of his themes from Squid.

(Released by Paramount Vantage and rated "R" for sexual content and language.)

Review also posted at www.windowtothemovies.com.