Coming Soon But Not Soon Enough#11 Margaret (Fox Searchlight. No release date announced yet.)
Margaret, the new film from missing-in-action writer/director Kenneth Lonergan may well be the most hotly anticipated film of 2006 for two sets of moviegoers: The first group is the rabid fans of the fine 2000 sibling drama You Can Count On Me. The second might be The Piano (1993) junkies (you know who they/you are) desperately waiting for Anna Paquin to play something other than a mutant or a Lolita-esque sex object for a change --just to see if she has any more greatness in her. It has to suck to peak at the precocious age of eleven, so let's hope she does. Have more greatness in her, I mean.
I must confess that when I first saw Lonergan's feature debut You Can Count On Me I didn't love it the way I do now. It was clear then that it was a solid drama and well written but it's lack of cinematic pizazz must have obscured it's greatness for me. I was a little surprised to see it on virtually every top ten list annnounced that year. But it definitely holds up well to repeat viewings and, more importantly, it grows more emotionally affecting in memory.
Margaret concerns a young woman who witnesses a traffic accident that sends her into an emotional tailspin. If Lonergan's second feature is anywhere close to as finely rendered and performed as his first, Paquin may finally be topping her uncanny brilliance as Holly Hunter's mischievous mouthpiece child in 1993. This is not to imply that Margaret is a one woman show. The large supporting cast includes Matt Damon (this is but one of three prestige dramas he's in this year. busy guy.), Mark Ruffalo, Keiran Culkin, Jean Reno, J Smith Cameron, Allison Janney, and Matthew Broderick.
tags: Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Margaret, drama, Mark Ruffalo
previous "coming soons": The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Zodiac, and Bug
