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Created Aug 05, 2012 06:32AM PST • Edited Dec 22, 2019 10:12PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Wow. Few contemporary dramas are as fully realized, involving and insightful as the unfortunately titled Margaret. Title aside, the movie’s other negative is a two and a half hour running time, and that’s for the version available from iTunes and Amazon. Apparently there’s also a three hour extended version!

   The 150 minutes don’t drag however, as the story of a whip-smart high school girl who inadvertently triggers a horrific accident ropes in a fascinating set of ancillary characters, and displays keen insight into how a teen might act-out in such a situation. Anna Paquin is terrifically nuanced as a girl who knows how to push buttons but is at sea when touched by tragedy. Several name-brand stars surround her (Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, Jean Reno, Matthew Broderick), but it’s the lesser known players who impress the most, especially J. Smith-Cameron as her Mother and Jeannie Berlin as her ally in seeking justice for the victim.

   Kenneth Lonergan deserves major praise for writing and directing Margaret, and even playing the role of Paquin’s divorced Father. However Lonergan also allowed himself to descend into prima-donna hell by making a way-too-long movie and then refusing to edit it down even to two and a half hours. Lawsuits ensued and years went by. Ultimately he was rescued by Matthew Broderick and Martin Scorsese. The former – his childhood buddy – appears in the movie and lent him money to complete it. The latter stepped in to edit it into the 150 minute masterpiece that it is now. Nice to have talented friends in high places.

   Margaret is highly recommended for those who appreciate outstanding drama about contemporary family dynamics, teen living, and our atomized urban society. It’s also been called the ultimate New York movie. That last is a title with lots of contenders, but Margaret is definitely deserving of a very Big Apple.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   Anna Pacquin – almost thirty – perfectly plays a 17 year old high schooler. That decade’s reflection since high school and her copious talent combine for an Oscar-worthy performance. Pacquin’s quicksilver expressions capture the conflicting impulses of late adolescence, especially as displayed in a product of superior intelligence and inferior parenting.

   J. Smith-Cameron is equally good as her actress Mother, a good mother under the circumstances, but one with her own needs and insecurities. IOW, she represents so many parents of the post-Greatest Generation generations, more a friend than an authority figure to her daughter.

   The strong supporting cast includes:

   • Jeannie Berlin, another little known actress, as the dead woman’s best friend.
   • Mark Ruffalo as a bus driver with a wandering eye.
   • Jean Reno as a good man with demented politics.
   • Kieran Culkin as an opportunistic bad boy.
   • Matt Damon as a straight-laced math teacher who does a poor job maintaining boundaries.
   • Matthew Broderick as a dogmatic lit teacher.
   • Kenneth Lonergan – the movie’s writer-director – as a divorced Dad who phones in his parenting from the Santa Monica beach.

   Allison Janney deserves special notice for the brief but powerful death scene she plays as the victim of a horrific traffic accident. Powerful but not overplayed!

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Kenneth Lonergan’s film adroitly brings us into a Manhattan West Side world of private schools, theatrical people and liberal shibboleths. None of his characters are evil, but all are recognizably flawed, which makes them seem real and certainly makes them ideal subjects for involving drama.

    About the title: Several scenes are set in a high school lit class where a poem titled Margaret gets read, if memory serves. Perhaps the poem speaks to the situation of Pacquin’s character. Even if that’s the case, it certainly doesn’t work as a draw for the film. Lonergan should have consulted his cinematic Rabbi, Martin Scorsese, about the title along with the editing.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Perfect 5.0

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 2.9

    The aftermath of a horrific traffic accident generates real horror. Separately, the sex is perfunctory albeit almost explicit, while the vile insults hurled by a teen at her mother and by the mother at her daughter are truly nasty. They seem to specialize in the C-word.

17. Sex Titillating 2.4

18. Violence Brutal 2.7

19. Rudeness Nasty 3.7

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

    The movie’s largely natural reality provides a lens into the politics being taught to many of today’s kids and held by many cosmopolitans from around the world. It is a politics that views the United States as a malign presence in the world. This corrosive worldview casts America and our ally Israel as The Man responsible for the problems of The People.

    One teacher in the movie bears a resemblance to Howard Zinn, author of the sadly influential textbook A People’s History of the United States. No doubt Lonergan was purposeful in his casting.

    Lonergan deserves props for giving several of the students in these scenes independent minds, notwithstanding the Leftist propaganda they’re fed.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.1

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0