2011 Sundance Predictions: Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret

#28. Margaret – Kenneth Lonergan

While not as old as the 20th anniversary showing of Slackers, Kenneth Lonergan’s sophomore film is old enough that two principle producers (Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack) will have passed away before having seen the final cut of the film. Word is: Fox Searchlight has a finished film in their possession. It would be fitting that Lonergan, who presented You Can Count on Me at the festival in 2001, return with this. Would be nice to see this one, perhaps as the opener? We are fed up of the wait.

Starring Matt Damon, Anna Paquin, Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick, Krysten Ritter, Jean Reno, Kieran Culkin, Olivia Thirlby, Allison Janney and Rosemarie DeWitt, Margaret centers on a 17-year-old New York City high-school student (Paquin) who feels certain that she inadvertently played a role in a traffic accident that has claimed a woman’s life. In her attempts to set things right she meets with opposition at every step. Torn apart with frustration, she begins emotionally brutalizing her family, her friends, her teachers, and most of all, herself. She has been confronted quite unexpectedly with a basic truth: that her youthful ideals are on a collision course against the realities and compromises of the adult world. The film’s title comes from the Margaret in the poem “Spring and Fall: To a Young Child” by 19th century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, briefly alluded to in one of Lisa’s classrooms.

* Producers: Gary Gilbert, Sydney Pollack and Scott Rudin
(IONCINEMA.com Preview Page // IMDB Link)