REVIEW: Kenneth Lonergan?s Flawed But Glorious Margaret Somehow Hits the Mark

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There’s always been a soft spot in my heart for grand, uncompromising, crazy-eyed acts of directorial ambition/foll — films like Southland Tales and The Fountain, Heaven’s Gate and One From The Heart — that are either disaster or genius depending on who you talk to but that could never be described as restrained. Margaret, playwright Kenneth Lonergan’s second turn as a director after 2000’s very good You Can Count on Me, joins these titles after spending years in post-production purgatory as Lonergan reportedly struggled over a final cut, following lawsuits and studio battles and delays upon delays. (Among those listed in the opening credits are two people who’ve passed away since production began, executive producer Anthony Minghella and producer Sydney Pollack.)
That’s a lot of baggage for what’s fundamentally a two-and-a-half hour film about a Manhattan high school student adrift after witnessing a bus accident, but Margaret bears the weight, a messy, vexing, rewarding work of both great shrillness and great humanism. It’s not a film that’s easy to love, but like a song you at first can’t stand but then end up humming all day, it works its way past your defenses and curls in close.
Margaret is the story of Lisa Cohen (Anna Paquin), who belongs squarely to two groups known for their capacity for noisy self-centeredness and unthinking entitlement — New Yorkers and teenagers. How nuanced and dead-on a portrait of Lisa the film offers accounts in many ways for how initially exasperating it is. Pretty, smart and outspoken, Lisa’s in full adolescent chaos, hormones raging,…
Christina Aguilera Christina Applegate Christina DaRe Christina Milian Christina Ricci Chyler Leigh Ciara