A young woman witnesses a bus accident, and is caught up in the aftermath, where the question of whether or not it was intentional affects many people's lives.
Lonergan’s long-awaited second feature proves as flawed as it is ambitious. If two and a half hours in the company of quarrelsome, self-absorbed New Yorkers don’t sound too punishing, there’s much to like.
It’s a phoenix of a film, risen from the ashes of what looked alarmingly like failure, and it needs to be seen.
The resulting movie is stunning: provocative and brilliant, a sprawling neurotic nightmare of urban catastrophe, with something of John Cassavetes and Tom Wolfe, and rocket-fuelled by a superbly thin-skinned performance by Anna Paquin.
It’s actually more interesting as a portrait of Lonergan’s protracted struggle to say something profound about a subject that’s too chaotic for his chosen medium, making it a sort of unintentional companion piece to Synecdoche, New York.
It is an intermittently enjoyable but overlong and uneven film.
he movie is poorly focused and Lonergan cannot have intended for his young heroine to be as insufferable and self-righteous as she appears in this version. It is nevertheless an intelligent, thoughtful film.
For all its flaws, Margaret is a big, serious, unashamedly intelligent film.
Haunting and thought-provoking despite flaws; an important post-9/11 movie with its own troubled mythology.
As a rule, not many films left in post-production limbo for six years turn out to be worth the wait, but Margaret is an exquisite exception: knotty, ambitious and trading in messy human truths, it’s the work of a master dramatist. Here’s hoping Lonergan’s next one reaches us a little faster.
Why is Fox trying to bury Margaret?
Cameo, Edinburgh from Friday December 23, 2011, until Thursday January 5, 2012. More info: http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/
Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Friday January 6, 2012, until Thursday January 12, 2012. More info: www.filmhousecinema.com
Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee from Wednesday January 11, 2012, until Friday January 13, 2012. More info: www.dca.org.uk
Eden Court Theatre, Inverness from Friday January 13, 2012, until Thursday January 19, 2012. More info: www.eden-court.co.uk
macrobert, Stirling from Saturday January 14, 2012, until Sunday January 15, 2012. More info: www.macrobert.org
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