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Margaret Brims with Sub-Plots

Kenneth Lonergan’s film, Margaret, clocking in at 150 minutes, has finally emerged from post-production woes and a raft of lawsuits. Shot in 2005 and supposed to have been released in 2007, it was mired in artistic and financial quarrels pitting Lonergan against the studio. As a result, Margaret did not appear in theatres until 2011.

The Toronto Jewish Film Society will screen it on Jan. 19 at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the JCC’s Al Green Theatre (750 Spadina Avenue).

 

Anna Paquin, right, and J. Smith Cameron star in Margaret
Anna Paquin, right, and J. Smith Cameron star in Margaret

The movie, set in contemporary Manhattan, has something for nearly everyone: a Jewish teenager’s growing pains, an acrimonious mother-daughter relationship and dollops of sex and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Lisa Cohen (Anna Paquin), 17, lives with her divorced mother, Joan (J. Smith Cameron), a theater actress, in New York City’s Upper West Side. They are not on the best of terms, but due to a tragedy, they learn to like and appreciate each other.

Lisa, a spunky and effervescent girl, witnesses an accident for which she’s indirectly responsible. A pedestrian (Allison Janney of West Wing fame) is hit and killed by a bus whose driver (Mark Ruffalo) was distracted by Lisa. Torn by guilt and remorse after having falsely told a police detective that the driver did not run a red light, Lisa confronts him.

Margaret, though, is much more than a film about an accident. It brims with sub-plots:

Joan meets Ramon (Jean Reno), a Colombian businessman who admires her skills as a thespian. But when Ramon is accused of making an antisemitic comment, their relationship changes.

Lisa calls a male friend, an artist a bit older, and boldly asks him to “take away” her virginity. “It`s the world`s greatest activity, but it`s not worth getting nervous about,” he blithely tells her.

Kenneth Lonergan
Kenneth Lonergan

Periodically, Lisa calls her father (Lonergan), to whom she can relate and who`s always seen near a beach in California.

At school, Lisa has heated exchanges with a pro-Palestinian Syrian American girl who’s opposes American policy in the Middle East.

These sub-plots are of some interest, but don’t really add much of substance to the movie. In fact, they tend to detract from its main theme — the accident and its ramifications on Lisa, the driver, the bus company and the victim’s survivors.

Indeed, Margaret may have been a better film had Lonergan focused more attention on the accident and its consequences and less on secondary events. It would have been tighter and shorter, but, perhaps, more effective in terms of narrative appeal.

The acting is competent enough, but Paquin, the lead, turns in an overwrought performance that should have been toned down.

http://youtu.be/g85NSsbzlyI