MARGARET

Lisa is a mess. A spoilt and precocious teenager used
to manipulating people to try and ensure that she always gets her own way, and who
has a somewhat privileged life with her divorced actress mother and her younger
brother in Manhattan. She’s an opinionated intelligent girl who’s not afraid to
show her contempt for anyone who takes any opposite view with her in the
private school she attends. She’s the type of young lady that you would be so
tempted to slap after a very brief conversation.

One day whilst on a silly errand she chases a bus
aggressively as it moves away from the Stop frantically trying to get the drivers
attention. She distracts him sufficiently that he actually runs a red light and drives straight over a
pedestrian who later dies in Lisa’s arms. 
Initially anxious that the driver will be  prosecuted for something that she
considers she is responsible for, Lisa makes a statement to the police
saying that the traffic lights were in fact green and that it really was an
accident.

As she consequently tries to make sense of this trauma
and figure out how it counts as something that happened to her, she tracks down
the victim’s best friend Emily with whom she comes clean and confesses that she lied
to the Police to save the Driver from jail, which she now bitterly regrets.  We know that Lisa is one angry young lady just
by her prickly relationship with her mother who she treats with such disdain
and contempt, but that is nothing in comparison with the force of her vitriol
that she now has for the Driver who she wants to see behind bars, and for the
adults ….like the Police or Emily … that do not see eye to eye with her on her rigid demands.

In fact this long awaited second narrative from Oscar Nominated writer/director Kenneth Lonergan (‘You Can Count on Me’) that was finally
released last year on the 10th Anniversary of the World Trade Centre
attacks was written very much as a post 9/11 story as is evident not just by
Lisa’s struggle to make sense of everything after an unexpected tragedy but by all
the heated classroom discussions on such topical issues like terrorism and
Islam etc.

It’s an intriguing somewhat flawed movie that does
meander in parts and at 2hrs 39 minutes is way way too long, BUT I was totally
drawn into it, faults and all. Mr
Lonergan has written three wonderful strong central female characters in this story, played so forcefully by exceptionally mesmerizing actresses.  Lisa’s mother Joan is an insecure actress now previewing an Off Broadway play that may finally be her ticket for stardom, and who starts unenthusiastically dating a fan just because he asked her and she is
lonely.  She’s played by the remarkable J
Cameron Smith who deservedly got the part even though she also happens to be Mrs. Kenneth Lonergan.
Then there is Emily the ‘best friend’ of dead Monica who has to deal with the demanding
neurotic Lisa whilst processing her own grief: a brilliant Jeannie Berlin.  And young Anna Paquin (from ‘True Blood’) who
truly got under my skin as Lisa, and is nothing short than superb.

Mr Lonergan has also scattered his cast with big stars
of the ilk of Matt Damon, Matthew Broderick, Allison Janney & Mark Ruffalo but
they are barely on the screen to make any real impact, which in the case of Mr
Broderick is something of a relief as he comes over as wooden as hell.

There is a backstory to this movie as to why it has been stuck on Studios and Courtroom Shelves since it was made in 2005, which I am
not totally up to speed on.  I am rather
glad that it finally did see the light of day as for me an imperfect Lonergan
movie is far better than so many other Director’s ‘best’ work.

P.S. The title comes from a Gerald Manley Hopkins
poem  which being a Brit who had never
read him, I had too look up … ‘It is the blight man was born for/It is
Margaret you mourn for’


★★★★★★★★