Margaret (2012)

17th February 2012 Director: Kenneth Lonergan.

Starring: Anna Paquin, Mark Ruffalo, J. Smith Cameron, Jeannie Berlin.

An ambitious drama with lots to say Margaret has a lot going for its but tries to cram in too much. Margaret was shot in 2005 but has been sitting on the shelf since 2007 as writer-director Kenneth Lonergan struggled over the final cut; initially wanting the film to come in at three hours, Lonergan deferred the final edit to Martin Scorsese and his regular editor Thelma Schoonmaker. Margaret's habit of meandering from one thought to the next is a symptom of not having one voice to guide the movie.

Margaret poses a moral question. Suppose you (in this case Anna Paquin's Lisa, a privileged New York teenager) distract a bus driver (Ruffalo) so he runs a red light and into Alison Janney, causing her to bleed to death in your arms, do you tell the police that the driver ran the red light and confess your own part in the accident? Or do you leave well enough alone? One side of the argument says that the woman is dead and nothing can change that, while you and the driver are alive and have lives to live and families to take care of; the other says a woman is dead and there has to be consequences of that.

There is so much to chew over here. Apart from the main conundrum, there are class debates over 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq; Lisa cheats on an exam; Matt Damon's teacher flirts with the idea of flirting with Lisa, and a lawyer sums up social order in one depressing sentence: "This is how society works we punish a guy by getting money from their employers' insurance company." Adding to the above is a coming of age story where Lisa learns that she is merely a child acting the adult without the necessary experience life gives, the theme of Gerard Manley Hopkins' Spring And Fall, whose character supplies the title and Lisa's character here. The story meanders off message too often with subplots involving Lisa and her friend who fancies her, Lisa losing her virginity to Kieran Culkin, her dad in California getting a business off the ground, and actress mum (Cameron) wooed by Jean Reno. Lonergan wants/wanted Margaret to be everything but cutting away this fat and he would have a pretty lean and powerful drama on his hands.

There's no denying that Margaret boasts the scene of the year, though; it needed a strong moment to propel the drama over its two-and-a-half hours and justify the often-rambling plot and it has it in the accident scene. Allison Janney lying in the street, struggling to comprehend what has just happened as her life ebbs away, is one that will burn into the memory and stay there for some time.

Lonergan might not have been able to edit his film but he certainly knew how to pull a career-best out of a brilliant Paquin; her verbal sparring with mum J. Smith Cameron might be a diversion but they sparkle. Matt Damon and Matthew Broderick might make the poster but their involvement is minimal. Lots to talk about.