Friday, October 26, 2012

Is It Margaret You Mourn For?


Margaret (2011) / US / Out on DVD now / Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan / Starring Anna Paquin, J. Smith-Cameron, Mark Ruffalo, Jeannie Berlin, Jean Reno, Allison Janney, Kieran Culkin, Matt Damon, Matthew Broderick / 178 mins

Some movies are just damn unlucky. Margaret happens to be one of those. By now, you should all know the story - the film was made around seven years ago, but was stuck in production because the producers wouldn't allow Kenneth Lonergan's passion project exceed 150 minutes. Lonergan insisted that it couldn't be that short, which eventuated in a couple of lawsuits, along with the film being shelved. Martin Scorsese and his trusty editor Thelma Schoonmaker came along and cut the film down to 150 minutes, which Lonergan approved of, and the film was on its way to a limited release in the US at the end of last year. Screeners were sent out to the Academy voters, but to no avail - Margaret passed without too much attention, trickled its way into international distributor's laps, and wound up on DVD, complete with the three hour extended cut. Which is what I watched, so in a way, I was kinda seeing Kenneth Lonergan's passion project just as he intended for it to be. But even then, it felt like this wasn't the masterpiece he wanted it to be - whether that be because his ideas were never fully realised, or three hours just wasn't enough to say everything that he wanted to say.


Should we be nice to Margaret because it has been on the shelf for so long? Should we take pity on Longergan's efforts? No way. Margaret has far too many flaws to count, but it is still a fantastic film. The plot doesn't exactly scream three hours of footage, either. It follows the life of Lisa Cohen (Anna Paquin), a 17 year old who witnesses a bus accident which kills a woman (Allison Janney) - and she believes she was part of the cause of it, as she thinks she was distracting the driver of the bus (Mark Ruffalo). This strain of plot doesn't exactly stretch itself over the three hours. Instead, it manifests itself into the dramas of Lisa's life, as she tries to grow up and learn from the experience, which is sometimes just a little too much for her 17 year old head to carry. Which is when the film becomes a coming-of-age drama, and to be honest, as a person who is the same age as the protagonist, this film was just about perfect.

The film is an absolute mess, but that somehow works to its advantage. That is probably because the film explores the tropes of being a teenager, and being a teenager is always an absolute mess. Lisa is an interesting character, who is impulsive, confused, headstrong...and yeah, sometimes impossibly annoying. But there's some interesting beauty within her. This comes from the fact that she doesn't move on from the accident that most people would have walked away from, creating an existential crisis that barely anyone could understand, but I could. Everything that happens to her rang surprisingly true in the strangest of ways. Her coming-of-age story wasn't sugar coated with those "teenage dream" days that Katy Perry believes in. Her life isn't particularly bad, but this movie kinda summed up my life, in all its twisted, angsty glory. Then again, I'm a little more lenient to looking on the bright side of life than Lisa is.


Lisa is a difficult character, prone to random (wordy) outbursts at everyone in anyone, and is far from the most consistent person on Earth. It takes a special talent to bring life to someone who is so confused in hers, and Anna Paquin is more than capable of that. It was kinda strange seeing her playing someone so young when I'm used to seeing her as Sookie Stackhouse on True Blood, but all those years ago, she gave us a wonderful performance - which is one of the best I've ever seen. She's part of the reason why this doesn't delve into Katy Perry territory in all its airbrushed nature. Paquin makes Lisa a completely normal teenager, which is what many early 20 year old actors seem to forget how to do. They'd rather exaggerate everything, but Paquin keeps it all tightly wound and down to Earth. It is a shame that this film wasn't more noticed around Oscar time, because Paquin's performance was better than Meryl Streep's prosthetics mimicry. Then again, this is exactly the kind of performance that the Academy likes to dismiss. Some people just don't realise what a feat it is to appear as a real human being on film, sometimes.

Backing Anna Paquin's tour de force is a round-table of actors that act that crap out of their characters, even if they get wavering amounts of screen time. Matt Damon and Matthew Broderick turn up off and on as school teachers, the former being Lisa's wee crush and the latter just, well, popping up. Mark Ruffalo gets a stunningly short amount of screen time as the bus driver that causes this big mess, but in the one scene where he's given a whole lot to do, he is fantastic. So is Rosemarie DeWitt, who plays his wife. J. Smith-Cameron is fantastic as Lisa's actress mother, Joan, who goes through some existential crises of her own. I kinda felt like her storyline that follows her love affair with Jean Reno was a little bit unimportant - but then again, that's not the only time it occurs in this film. Kieran Culkin is pretty good, as is Allison Janney in her extremely small role. Jeannie Berlin is probably the standout, as the woman who helps Lisa try and get to the bottom of this bus accident. Some of these characters don't stay around long, some of them stay around too long - but that's the beauty of it: these people aren't really forced into the film, they just come and go. It is all a big party for Lisa, really, and that party just happens to go for three hours.


I cannot stress enough how flawed and choppy Margaret is, but this isn't the kind of film that I can deem as "bad" or "The Room". If Margaret survives on anything, it survives on the ambition. Kenneth Lonergan's ambition bleeds through every word, and I admire how he managed to stick with his project for so long. The fact that I had to stick with his project for a little longer than I wanted to wasn't really a problem - when ambition shines through like that, those three hours didn't seem to matter one bit.

What I got:

15 comments:

  1. I could've watched it for much longer than 3 hours. The flaws did not bother me at all either. Though I do wish Ruffalo had more screen time. Matthew Broderick was a really nice surprise. The only thing about the film that became bothersome after a while was the choppy editing which meant many scenes ended quite abruptly, which made me uncomfortable. Despite being rather jarring it didn't distract too much from the experience of the film, which was great. I am blogging again, by the way. :)

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    1. I could've watched it for much longer, too - the editing would have been better, that way. And yay!

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  2. I don't think I watched the extended version on DVD but I really wanted to see his version. One of Anna Paquin's best performances even though I couldn't bear her outbursts, I felt weird watching her actions in her film... she was so unlikable at times and then I was sorry for what she had to go through. Highly recommend this film although I disliked how we were left out of so many of the conversations in the film.

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    1. It is really good, if you can get your hands on it! And yeah, that was a shame.

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  3. I really loved this film. The best way I can describe it, flaws and all, is that it is an insight into the head of a teenage girl, which you must know is the most nonsensical place on earth.
    I really want to watch the extended cut.
    Paquin was ab fab.

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    1. It is - that's why I loved it so much.

      And heck yeah, Paquin was ab fab.

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  4. This film really frustrated me, It was so good, but I agree on it being really choppy. I didn't get to see the extended cut, so for me it was like watching the worst editing job ever. It makes me sad, Anna Paquin is so good, and she deserved better for the performance she gave.

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    1. It would be interesting to see how bad the editing was in the normal version. It was still pretty bad in this version. Paquin did deserve better!

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  5. I heard the interview about this film a while ago on radio but it didn't immediately appeal to me. Interesting background on this one Stevee, I might give this a shot for the performances, but not sure I could bear it for 3 hours though, we shall see.

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    1. If you can't handle the 3 hours, watch it in segments. I'm sure it'll still be really good that way! Definitely give it a shot, though, especially for Paquin.

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  6. This film is far from perfect, but I loved it. Anna Paquin (indeed, MUCH better than Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady) and the entire cast are fantastic.

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  7. I started watching this again last night - had to pause it because it was getting too late - but I remember wanting to watch the longer version when I saw it at the cinemas.

    It was chopped up and seem to be missing pieces. Well, so far I have recognised a few added sequences and I am admiring this film even more.

    It is ambitious, but I think it has some of the best dialogue exchanges of any film I have seen in some time. It has real, fleshed-out characters (even Ruffalo in that lone sequence reveals who he is) and outstanding performances. It makes me feel a lot of emotions. A lot of frustration, but I think that's the idea. Will likely be in my Top 10 come the end of the year.

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    1. I hope you like the extended version. It would be interesting to compare the two.

      The dialogue is fantastic! Everyone in this film does seem real, which is something that I really loved about the film.

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  8. I've always heard great things about it, so I am surprised to hear it has many flaws, but I still want to watch it, you made me curious! Great review!

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You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

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