Margaret

I once had a classmate who, when explaining why he doesn't watch cerebral movies, stated that "after a long hard day in clinicals, I'm just ready for some good ol' dick and fart jokes." I've encountered several others who avoid challenging films, music, and literature for similar reasons: their jobs and lives are filled with enough mental taxation that they just want to be entertained for awhile. It is highly unlikely that the 2011 release MARGARET would suit them. If they did make the effort (there are several well-known actors in the cast, a likely draw), they probably wouldn't last through the full 2.5 hours. And that's the theatrical cut.

Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan actually shot this film in 2005, spending the next several years agonizing over editing and eventually becoming involved in a labyrinth of lawsuits. Interestingly, Martin Scorsese and his often-editor Thelma Schoonmaker were brought in to attempt to bring cohesion to the picture. The 150 minute cut is the result, which Lonergan approved. MARGARET finally opened for a very limited engagement in 2011. The recently released DVD also has Lonergan's favored edit, which runs a half hour longer. This review is based on the other. I can only imagine what an untenable mess MARGARET must have seemed before its eventual assembly. Scores of great, even brilliant scenes in search of a whole. Has this been achieved? I'm still deliberating. Still replaying scenes, still discovering layers. Still in awe. So much to consider here. I was reminded of MAGNOLIA throughout this movie, how it just bludgeoned me with raw emotion and moments of cinematic wizardry, and made me uneasy for days afterward. Exhilarated, but still uneasy. 

And like MAGNOLIA, MARGARET is a restless howl of pain, a collection of intense episodes, a literal scream of unimaginable guilt and frustration. Also, for all of their brilliance, both films eventually spin out of control. Lisa Cohen (Anna Paquin) is a senior at a posh private school in the Upper West Side of NYC. She's an expressive young woman, unafraid of, for example, alienating others during class debates. Perhaps she gets this from her divorced mother Joan (J. Smith-Cameron), a stage actress. Both engage in numerous, explosive dialogues throughout the film, and not just with each other. One afternoon, Lisa is shopping for just the right cowboy hat for her upcoming horseback riding trip (where she will join up with her writer father, played by Lonergan). She spots a bus driver (Mark Ruffalo) wearing just the right one and tries to get his attention as he's pulling away from a stop. She's successful, causing the driver to look at her long enough to drive through a red light and run down a woman in the crosswalk, in a frightfully realized sequence. Lisa finds herself in the street with the dying woman's (Alison Janney) head in her lap, trying to console her fear and bewilderment (both women's). 

It seems the victim, in her last moments, maybe believes Lisa is her daughter. Lisa gives a false statement to the police, ostensibly to protect the driver. Her action seems to be validated by her mother (who is unaware of the statement), who states that the driver likely has a family to take care of. She believes she did the right thing and goes about her teenage business.  Like breaking the heart of one classmate and willfully planning to lose her virginity to another. Also, getting caught "smoking a J" by her English teacher, Mr. Van Tassel (Matthew Broderick) and harboring what may be more than a crush on her math teacher, Mr. Caije (Matt Damon). And...acknowledging but not really dealing with the trauma she has experienced. Is there any guilt? But while time may heal some wounds, it may also bring increasingly horrible acknowledgement. And it spills over into every area of Lisa's life. As we learn more about her with each scene, she begins to reach different conclusions. Sees the scenario with more clarity, as if she hovers like a spirit, an angel over the accident scene (does this mean she has also died in some way, or the opposite?). 

With each height, greater ability to view the entire scene, greater understanding. She changes her statement to the police, who treat her with suspicion. She connects with the deceased's best friend, a hardened woman named Emily (Jeanne Berlin) and with her decides to take legal action, to "make someone responsible." That someone is to be Jason, the bus driver, and Lisa makes an ill-advised visit to his house to confront him. Or maybe the Metro Transit Authority is to blame? MARGARET is not a procedural police drama or mystery. Despite several scenes of attorney meetings and enough legalese to make you lose your lunch, Lonergan is using each element to build a more thematic case, of finding the line where guilt and responsibility intertwine, the shifting definitions of each. 

The film is a very talky (Lonergan is a playwright), emotionally exhausting experience that finally just overwhelmed me in the later passages. Lisa's pain is also the viewer's, if you allow yourself such vulnerability. Watching MARGARET, I was reminded of the the films of John Cassavettes, another filmmaker who refused to let you sit passively and seek the sort of entertainment my classmates desired. The director brought us the wonderfully observant (if a tad bit overrated) YOU CAN COUNT ON ME in 2000. While that film was more successful in succinctly portraying its characters and their deep seated flaws, MARGARET is an exponential move forward for Lonergan. Despite the editing dilemmas, many scenes cut together beautifully. 

The backdrop of the fallout of September 11th infuses everything, not just the passionate exchanges of Lisa and her classmates during numerous debate scenes. But upon much reflection, the film finally gets away from Lonergan. The ambitions are huge, and sometimes this comes at the cost of the beauty of cinematic economy. Or, put crudely, knowing when enough is enough. Paquin pulls off a very complex role with real skill, managing everything from passive brooding to near demonic anger. I never felt she overdid it. The fine cast all have their choice moments, including Berlin, whose vocal force is so penetrating I could feel it at times. Even Broderick, who has limited screen time, gets to shine. Most notable, in a meta sort of way, is a long, tense scene with him and a defiant student, who challenges his interpretation of Shakespeare. After much back and forth, Van Tassel shouts "That's not what Shakespeare meant!" It was as if Lonergan included this scene to hold a mirror up to all of the critics and buffs who will doubtless argue over their interpretations of MARGARET. I'm guilty, but I suspect many others won't sit still long enough to discover the same.