Margaret (2011)

The first thing to note about the film Margaret (2011) is that the main character’s name is Lisa, not Margaret. Lisa is the very unreliable narrator, who witnesses a woman’s death after she is hit by a bus driver. What I didn’t realise before watching this film is that the victim, Monica, dies in Lisa’s arms. This harrowing scene sets the tone for the rest of the film, which proved to be packed with raw emotion and stress inducing confrontations.

Lisa is as clueless as she is self-righteous. She embodies the worst traits of a typical adolescent. She is selfish, rarely considering the impact of her actions on others. She’s dramatic and liable to overreact to crisis or confrontation. It’s hard to like Lisa, but I did feel some sympathy for her throughout the story. She is very young and in the depths of trauma. As a viewer, you expect the adults in her life to create a support system following the bus accident. On the contrary, the adults

Lisa seeks out often treat her with contempt rather than nurture her. Or worse, take advantage of her.

The story sees Lisa in a moral dilemma. She distracted the bus driver, causing him to run a red light and run over Monica as she absentmindedly crosses the road. Lisa initially lies to the investigators, claiming that the light was green at the time and merely an accident as opposed to the result of negligence. We later learn that Lisa felt pressured to protect the bus driver. Lisa’s guilt gets the better of her and to gain closure, she attempts to reopen the case. Failing that, Lisa, along with the help of Monica’s friend Emily, seeks legal help to take on the bus company. Lisa’s idea of justice proves incompatible with the reality of the accident. Her attempts to have the driver reprimanded causes her to hit a brick wall.

The other aspect of Lisa’s character that rings true is the attempt to reclaim this tragedy as her own. Lisa is unable to process this tragedy beyond her own experience. She fails to recognise that the lives of others have been more negatively affected by Monica’s death than her own. Grief is not finite and Monica's death has profoundly affected Lisa.

For the undeveloped teenage mind, the effects of trauma are difficult to process. We watch Lisa deny the need for comfort from her mother but seek out relief by other means. When her search for comfort in others fails, it’s understandable that Lisa struggles to get through her daily life.

It’s undeniable that Margaret is well done. The performances are dynamic. Alison Janney as Monica may only appear briefly on screen but her impact is mesmerising as she painfully dies following the accident. Anna Paquin is fittingly irritating and irrational playing spoilt Lisa. I was lost in her performance, feeling that she became Lisa. I stopped seeing her as the kiwi export actress and only saw her as a girl in turmoil.

Would I say that Margaret is one of the best films of the century? It’s certainly not my favourite. Not because I couldn’t recognise the film for its excellence, but because I was offered no respite. I want to be lost in a film. I want to witness beauty as well as a mirror onto the world. Margaret offers so much ugliness. The pillars holding this film up are injustice and unfairness, there is no peace in this film. There is, perhaps, catharsis in this film, but that is again heart wrenching. Lisa may be a complicated and somewhat unlikable character but I wouldn’t wish her trauma on anyone. As an empathetic viewer this was a difficult watch. Much like Lisa’s approach to her grief, I just wanted to escape this film, despite its thought provoking and cleverly constructed plot.

I watched Margaret on iTunes. I would recommend this film to anyone who is interested in particularly brutal dramas. For anyone who prefers their dramas with some comic relief, this film may be best avoided.