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WWW.ATHEKSCINE.COM 706.353.3343
234 w. Hancock ave downtown athens
‘aCEBOOK C0M'ATHENSCl«f TWITTER COm/ATMEnSCIME
MARGARET (R) A 17-year-otd Manhattan
private-school student, Margaret (Anna
Paquin), witnesses a deadly bus and pedes
trian accident and believes she directly caused
it by distracting the driver (Mark Ruffalo). In
the wake of the incident, Margaret's life of
schoolwork, dating and dealing with her stage
actress mother, Joan (3. Smith-Cameron),
takes precedent The bus accident continues
to reverberate throughout
Margaret's life, however, and
she obsesses over what she
believes actually happened.
In her quest for justice, she
runs into bigger problems
and uncertainty.
Margaret, written
and directed by Kenneth
Lonergan (You Can Count on
Me), was filmed in 2005, and
its post-production history
was problematic, to say the
least. Lonergan was contrac
tually obligated to bring in
a film no longer than 120
minutes. He was unable to
do so. The studio allowed
Lonergan to work on a longer cut, but after
waiting a year, they pulled funding, and the
director was left on his own. Six years later,
Margaret was dumped into theaters in fall
2011, clocking in at 150 minutes. It didn't do
well with critics or audiences. Interest grew,
though, and Margaret has slowly made its
way to more screens. Normally, this kind of
Anna Paquin
background isn't necessary for a movie review.
It's significant here because it's important to
know that this theatrical release is still not
Lonefgan's final cut which is rumored to be
closer to three hours.
What's here is flawed. It's also ambitious,
maddening, frustrating, fascinating and over
whelming. It feels like a narrative wilderness
at times because plot is secondary to char
acter development and the
explication of ideas, though
it's exhilarating watching
a filmmaker this brave and
intelligent work on an epic
scale. Margaret is deceptively
straightforward at first But
as it opens up and Lonergan
deals with how Margaret
has inserted herself into the
lives of others, latching onto
the tragedy and misguidedly
using it as a surrogate for
any real feeling, the film's
novelistic layers become
pronounced. This is not a
tidy film. It feels ragged at
times, and the main plot of
Margaret bringing up a legal case against the
driver gets lost amid the narrative detours. To
miss seeing so mucfi good acting and writing,
though, would be a shame. If only more film
makers were this daring. It's about America,
about a.city and ultimately just about a girl.
Derek Hill
Dark SWows "*FUCK5KINNY w Chit 3
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MArTHEW BRODERICK
MATT DAMON
MARGARET
IhAilr
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1
MAY 16,2012 • FLAGPOLE.COM 11
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