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DIFFICULT

Today's film was Kenneth Lonergan's long awaited

Margaret (2011)

There is no Margaret in the picture, it is from a poem read and meant to symbolize the stakes in this story.

Anna Paquin is a teenager who is involved in a serious bus accident. She has distracted the driver. She holds the dying in her arms.

Tough stuff.

But rather than accept her part in it, she becomes an avenger. She interacts with people with righteous scorn. Only she is usually wrong.

The thing is that you have to see the film to understand it. There is no story per se. It is about situations and people in the young woman's life. What she does to herself and others to shut out reality.

Others are complicit and somehow in their own detachment, play along with the game, prolonging the final acceptance of what has happened and who, what and how reality occurs.

No one is really engaged with one another here. All are playing at life, in a way. Not touching.

Paquin's character is told that her life is not an opera with her as a star.

Ironically, it is at the opera that she gets this and finally lets go of her guilt, shame and responsibility. She becomes human in the midst of total artifice.

Wow. I am amazed that I just typed that. I totally did get it when I thought that I did not.

Along the way there are great nuggets of NYC scenery. Some beautiful night time stuff. They must have really let the second unit roll to get this kind of beautiful photography.

Everything is close up. Nothing is spared.

The review tells how this became a troubled film and why it took four years to come out. It is not mangled but while Lonergan says it is OK with him, he did not do the final edit. Fox released it under pressure from critics and movie folks who had seen it. It had a limited release and was not promoted. There was litigation.

Too bad.

It was salvaged nonetheless and here we have the result.

At one time Lonergan had a five hour film and that is available to be seen if you buy the discs together. As it stands this version is quite long but passes quickly in the seeing of it.

I am not sure that I want to see it again. It is wrenching. But I will give it a 5 anyway which will put it on the docket for future times.

Labels: films