Margaret
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: September 30, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 26, 2012
Ambitious, affecting, unwieldy and haunting, it's an eccentric, densely atmospheric, morally hyper-aware masterpiece that refuses to follow the strictures of conventional cinematic structure, instead leading the audience on a circuitous journey down the myriad rabbit holes that comprise modern-day Manhattan. Read full review
100
Time OutKeith UhlichSep 27, 2011
And though not all of Lonergan's conceits work on a scene-by-scene basis (an upper-crust womanizer played by Jean Reno skews a bit too close to caricature), the film has a cumulative power-solidified by a devastating opera-house finale-that's staggering. This is frayed-edges filmmaking at its finest. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenFeb 19, 2020
Kenneth Lonergan, who wrote and directed Margaret, deserves credit for the framework and dialogue he provides, but it’s Paquin who channels the roiling surges of that age with a startling combination of unpredictability and precision. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversJan 13, 2012
Margaret, for all its flaws, is a film of rare beauty and shocking gravity. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisOct 6, 2011
Who knows what movie Lonergan was searching for in all that footage? But what emerges from the tinkering and legal skirmishes is an occasional marvel, a kind of everyday highbrow social X-ray, Paul Mazursky by way of Krzysztof Kieslowski. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnOct 4, 2011
Artistically, however, the movie delivers on a surprisingly effective scale, no matter how Lonergan sees it. Alternately perceptive, subversive, tragic and profound. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineMark OlsenOct 4, 2011
A fascinating, deeply felt film of wild, untamed emotions and probing insights. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanSep 30, 2011
Margaret - titled after a poem - reflects its adolescent subject with striking accuracy. It can be frustrating and self-important, clumsy and naive. But it's also passionate, curious and filled with insight, so unafraid in its ambitions that even the flaws are interesting. Every bold vision requires respect; a few deserve celebration. This is one of them, imperfections and all. Read full review
80
MovielineAlison WillmoreSep 29, 2011
It's not a film that's easy to love, but like a song you at first can't stand but then end up humming all day, it works its way past your defenses and curls in close. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 6, 2011
A half hour before the finish, Margaret loses altitude and starts looking for a place, any place, to land. Instead it crashes, in slow motion. But up until then, Margaret is committed and unusual. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyOct 6, 2011
Besides Paquin, who delivers a once-in-a-lifetime performance as the maddeningly inconsistent Lisa, also wrenchingly fine are Jeannie Berlin as the best friend of the deceased and J. Smith-Cameron as Lisa's actress mother. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesOct 6, 2011
Even in its truncated state, this is pretty gripping stuff; just think of it as an epic commercial for the director's cut DVD. Read full review
70
TimeMary PolsSep 29, 2011
Lonergan didn't bite off more than he could chew with Margaret - this is his personal moral gymnasium - but he did bite off more than others might want to chew. Read full review
70
Village VoiceKarina LongworthSep 27, 2011
It's less successful as a human drama than as a near-Brechtian exercise in what human drama looks and sounds like - a distanced but often car-crash compelling portrait of a teen as an unfinished being. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanSep 28, 2011
Lonergan's dialogue can sweep you up in a whoosh of personality and ideas, but it's hard to see what, apart from ego, convinced him that this story was so epic. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithSep 30, 2011
For a 90-minute movie, Margaret has a thin story. So it's unfortunate that it runs 2 1/2 hours. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenSep 28, 2011
Fine performances and bristling language compel in this overlong, often off-putting but well-observed New York story. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyOct 6, 2011
Kenneth Lonergan's new film, Margaret, finally released six years after it was shot, now seems destined to become part of film history as one of the more stunning examples of a filmmaker's sophomore slump. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 6, 2011
What an interesting failure Margaret is. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 30, 2011
I wish I could say it's a resurrected classic but, alas, it's mostly a mess – a 2-1/2-hour mess no less. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 29, 2011
To watch the long, painful last hour of this movie is to watch all of his good ideas and smart impulses collapse into a heap of half-written, awkwardly acted, increasingly frantic scenes. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeySep 29, 2011
Lonergan has created a forceful yet extremely fitful film that teases with moments of brilliance only to frustrate in the end. Margaret is an unrealized dream, one you wish he'd gotten as right as his 2000 debut, "You Can Count on Me." Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangSep 28, 2011
This unwieldy drama of conscience in the wake of tragedy is hyperarticulate but rarely eloquent, full of wrenchingly acted scenes that lack credible motivation or devolve into shrill hectoring. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedSep 28, 2011
A 2½-hour art film that is something of a well-intentioned mess. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMar 30, 2012
As well-shot and well-acted as it is, one can't help feeling there's a good movie in there somewhere. Unfortunately, it's buried beneath such an avalanche of extraneousness and artistic posing. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenOct 5, 2011
Margaret definitely has many elements for a successful drama. It's unfortunate that no one was able to shape them into a functional movie. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 26, 2011
This is the first bad movie that has ever made me call for a sequel - to get it all right. Read full review
30
SalonAndrew O'HehirSep 29, 2011
Rarely has a film with such a great cast and so many moments of terrific writing and such high dramatic goals been so messy and disorganized and fundamentally bad. Read full review
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