Film Review: "Margaret" (2011).

"From the director of You Can Count on Me" comes Margaret. This epic drama film written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan. Lisa witnesses a freak accident and holds the driver of the bus responsible for the victim's death. She files a lawsuit against the driver but eventually loses hope when the driver is set free.

Fox Searchlight Pictures originally scheduled the film for a 2005 release date, but was repeatedly delayed while Lonergan struggled for four years to create a final cut he was satisfied with and struggled with Fox Searchlight, resulting in multiple lawsuits. In early 2009, the movie was deemed "unreleasable", due to different lawsuits concerning Lonergan's failure to complete the movie during editing. Despite Lonergan's long and troubled editing process, Fox Searchlight Pictures was not willing to fire a Director with final cut privilege, and risk damaging their reputation among other filmmakers. Lonergan was contractually obligated to deliver a cut of one hundred fifty minutes, but his preferred version ran close to three hours. Martin Scorsese (who had previously deemed Lonergan's cut a "masterpiece") and his longtime Editor Thelma Schoonmaker, were drafted to create an alternate edit. Scorsese, despite being busy with Hugo (2011) and some other projects, agreed to edit the film for free. Their cut was similar to Lonergan's, and ran one hundred sixty minutes. The cut was never completed due to a budget shortage of $500,000. When Fox Searchlight and Gary Gilbert refused to pay anymore for a film that seemed like it would never be released during the post-production process, Lonergan turned to childhood friend Matthew Broderick, who lent him some money to continue working on his project. Gilbert was initially tolerant of the extended editing process, because he had faith in Lonergan, and paid out of his own pocket for additional time in the editing suite. However, Producer Scott Rudin would describe Gilbert's scrutiny and excessive involvement in the editing process as "toxic". In fall 2007, Gilbert hired Dylan Tichenor to help create another edit of the film. He and Tichenor created a two-hour cut, dubbed the "Peggy cut" (after Gilbert's production company), with which Lonergan was unsatisfied. Lonergan finished his own two-and-a-half-hour cut over half a year later, in summer 2008. In July 2010, Fox Searchlight stated that Lonergan finally completed work on the film, and that it would be released in 2011. In 2014, the litigation ended.

The film stars Anna Paquin, Mark Ruffalo, Jean Reno, John Gallagher Jr., Allison Janney, Kieran Culkin, Matt Damon, Rosemarie DeWitt, Matthew Broderick, Olivia Thirlby, Michael Ealy, and Krysten Ritter. Lonergan and the cast avoid the faults of many American films by refusing to cast characters in a judgmental light, giving each enough dignity to be convincing and sympathetic. The lead character are extremely well played by Paquin.

Margaret may look like it belongs on the small screen, but the movie surprises with its simple yet affecting story. Beautifully acted and crafted, the movie will simply draw you in.

Simon says Margaret receives: