Margaret (2011)

Rated R for strong language, sexual content, nudity, some drug use and disturbing images

Runtime: 3 hours and 6 minutes

Genre: Drama

Director: Kenneth Lonergan

Writer: Kenneth Lonergan

Actors: Anna Paquin, J. Smith-Cameron, Jean Reno, Allison Janney, Matthew Broderick, Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon, Jeannie Berlin and Kieran Culkin

Budget: $14,000,000

Box Office: $564,864

Feedback: The theatrical version is garbage. Although the extended is slighly better with better sound design and music soundtrack, but doesn't excuse the runtime with very unlikable characters, atrocious editing, overdone dialogue, confusing plot devices, and irrelvent cliches.

I found the editing to be awful in the threatrical version. It would not just take a breath, it's mostly aggressive.

The plot doesn't have a lot of build up and I'm not sure if it's really about the investigation of the bus driver, worrying about Lisa's mother or about school. I know that this movie is trying to follow the world's rules, but that doesn't explain of what the focus of the story is. I think if it was a documentary about accidents or even a short 20 minute film, that would be a much better, rather than making a 3 hour movie.

Every single characters are very unoriginal and unlikable. The only character that makes me feel uncomfortable is Lisa Cohen, being the only person who the most hated characters in all the cinema. She doesn't seem to be that entertaining because all she ever does scream at people, thinking that she is the victim of all of this happening and blaming the other characters thinking that it is their fault. It also has a lot of distracting moments where characters keep talking on the phone and let the characters have a nice conversation, very obnoxious.

The dialogue is all over the place, pretty much on-the-nose and throws it toward's the audience's faces. That is why every character is acting like they are wanting to go to go home and eat lunch. Since their is a lot of drama going on in real life, this is just a movie being more cliche and not really advanced placement material.

This is probably the least favorite films to watch. Although, this was credited to Sydney Pollack's last movie to be the executive producer.

Overall Verdict:

Story 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (3.5)

Character 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (3)

Dialogue/Diction 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (2.5)

Pacing/Timing 0 1 2 3 4 5 (1)

Background/Sets 0 1 2 3 4 5 (1)

Background Music/Audio 0 1 2 3 4 5 (2.5)

Camera/Editing 0 1 2 3 4 5 (1)

Theatrical Version 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (2)

Extended Version 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (4)

20.5/70 2.9/10