Nicole Kidman can’t catch a break. Ever since her Oscar-winning turn in The Hours five years ago, she’s been in one disappointment after another. It’s heart-breaking because I like her a lot and want her to be in a great movie again. Her stand-out movies of the last decade (plus a couple years) include Moulin Rouge, To Die For, and Eyes Wide Shut, with The Others and The Hours not far behind. Cold Mountain, released in 2003, was a decent movie, but she followed that up with The Stepford Wives (awful), Birth (weird), The Interpreter (didn’t see it), Bewitched (really really didn’t want to see it), and Fur (critically panned). This year she has three films. The Invasion came and went last August without anyone blinking, The Golden Compass (which looks questionable) opens in December, and now there’s Margot at the Wedding, opening November 21 in limited release.

I thought Margot at the Wedding could be the movie to finally lift her out of this funk, mostly due to the fact that it’s directed by Noah Baumbach, who made the near-perfect, absolutely wonderful 2005 comedy The Squid and the Whale, starring Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney. The movie sounded like a return to the kind of quiet character pieces that Kidman has been abandoning lately for the bigger Hollywood movies. And for the first half of this movie, I found myself enjoying it well enough, finding flaws, but mostly having a good time. Unfortunately, despite there being some great things about it, Margot at the Wedding just doesn’t come together in a satisfying way, particularly ending in one of the most awkward last scenes of a movie I’ve seen in a long time. As a movie, it’s just a decent film. As a follow-up to The Squid & the Whale, it’s nothing short of a let-down.

Kidman plays the title character Margot, who takes a train with her son Claude to a remote place in the Hamptoms to attend the wedding of her sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh, wife of Baumbach). The two used to be the best of friends, but they have become estranged from each other in recent years. They are completely honest with each other, and Margot lets Pauline know her feelings toward her beau Malcolm (Jack Black). She doesn’t like him, and she thinks Pauline can do far better. What follows is a long weekend where two sisters try to find what they used to have, and a devestating secret is discovered about someone that changes everything.

Baumbach has brought a handful of elements over from The Squid and the Whale to this film, like the shaky camera-work, the dream-like music, and the realistic dialogue. A lot of material in the first half-hour of this movie with Margot and Pauline just talking to each other is really well done. While none of the characters in this is extremely likable, we want to get to know everyone better. But the movie really doesn’t have anywhere to go except for the impending wedding, which we kind of know from the start probably isn’t going to turn out the happy way Pauline and Malcolm want it to.

What I didn’t expect from Baumbach were three glaring flaws. First, on just a purely technical level, this movie at times looks awful. There are a lot of scenes shot in doors that look so black and grainy, it’s hard at times to see what is happening. For awhile I thought there was just a problem with the projection, but then I realized all the day scenes looked crisp and fantastic. It just doesn’t suit this movie to have bits and pieces look so awful. Second, there was the ending. To not give anything anyway, there is a reveal about one of the characters that feels a little bit tacked on, too scripted, and this third-act revelation is then followed by a handful of final scenes that don’t quite gel. The last scene, involving a long dialogue between Margot and her son, goes on and on, all the way to a weird cut to black that signifies that the movie is over but left me empty and confused.

And thirdly, one terrible casting choice. No, not Kidman or Leigh. Both do pretty good work with what they’re given, particularly Leigh, who comes off best in this movie. She proves here that with a great character and screenplay she can be the star of a movie. She has a unique presence on screen that deserves more than five minutes of screen time in a movie like Road to Perdition. No, it’s not any of the kids, who all do a great job, and prove once again, like in Squid and the Whale, that Baumbach is a fantastic director when it comes to coaxing good performances out of child actors. It’s Jack Black who brings this movie down. A lot. He can be funny and winning in the right material, but lately, he has been feeling more out of place than ever. It started with King Kong, where he played a 1920’s film director (awkward). That was followed by the Holiday, where he romanced Kate frickin Winslet (double awkward). And here, we’re supposed to buy him in a mostly dramatic role, romancing Jennifer Jason Leigh and making controversial actions that change the outcome of the movie (ughhh). Get ready for not one, but two Jack Black crying scenes. I don’t know what these directors see in him, but he’s just not right for these kinds of movies. When I see a character in a movie played by Jack Black, I almost always see Jack Black (the exception being his wonderful turn as a stoner brother in Orange County). He’s totally out of place in Margot at the Wedding, as someone less famous and more charismatic should’ve taken on the role.

Noah Baumbach has a dozen more great movies in him, I’m sure, but Margot at the Wedding isn’t it. It’s a movie that works well enough, I guess, and it’s better than most of the disappointing movies I’ve seen this fall season. If the last twenty minutes had been more effective, this review may even have been written differently. But there’s still not enough that goes right here for me to recommend the movie. The next great Nicole Kidman movie it’s definitely not, and, with only The Golden Compass on the horizon, it may be awhile before we see her make a return to form. It looks like a reunion film with Ewan McGregor may be in order. One can dream anyway. Come what may.

2 1/2 stars (out of 4)