Review of Margaret (2011) by Art S — 15 Feb 2013

Filmed in 2005 and then running into post-production hell and legal troubles until release in 2011, Margaret is a heavy duty melodrama set in motion by the swirling intensity of unbridled and immature emotions released by Lisa Cohen (played expertly by Anna Paquin) after witnessing a bus accident.

A few mentions of (or visits to) the Opera highlight the film's main thrust -- in her head, life is an overwrought drama of good and evil, with demands and responsibilities to pursue the most moral course of action.

Yes, these are the dictums of adolescence, when there are so many opportunities to blunder and so many agonies of embarrassment on the path to truth. Indeed, director Kenneth Lonergan took this theme (and the title) from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, which suggests that we may actually end up missing the emotional intensities of our youth.

But truly they are a train wreck to watch! (For what it's worth, I watched the 186 minute extended version of Margaret, which apparently involves different editing and sound -- with a rather meditative view of New York City interspersed throughout).