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Margaret
17-year-old Lisa feels certain that she inadvertently played a role in causing a traffic accident that 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 with the realities and compromises of the adult world.
2011 · Directed by Kenneth Lonergan · 150 min · Drama · Screenplay in the scene database · 19 frames
Plot
A 17-year-old Manhattan student, Lisa Cohen, shopping on the Upper West Side, interacts with bus driver Gerald Maretti as she runs alongside his moving bus; he allows himself to become distracted, leading him to fatally strike a pedestrian, Monica Patterson, who subsequently dies in Lisa's arms. Initially, Lisa reports to the police that the driver had a green traffic signal, but later, out of remorse, changes her story.
Lisa has a rocky relationship with her mother Joan, an actress who has recently found success starring in a play. They fight sporadically and Lisa is ambivalent toward Joan's success in theater and her new boyfriend Ramon. Meanwhile, Lisa is in a back-and-forth discussion with her father over an upcoming trip to his home. Lisa's life takes various turns: she involves herself in various vehement debates with classmates about politics and terrorism, decides to lose her virginity to her classmate, Paul, and flirts with her math teacher, Mr. Caije, which later results in them having sex. Much later, she tells him, in the presence of another teacher, that she had an abortion and was not sure who the father was, mentioning there were several possibilities.
Lisa confronts Maretti at his home. He pretends to have forgotten the details of the accident, but later reveals to her in anger that he does remember them, but believes he did nothing wrong. Lisa decides to pursue his firing with passion. Alongside Monica's best friend, Emily, and cousin, Abigail, Lisa ultimately becomes involved in a wrongful death lawsuit against the Metropolitan Transit Authority, seeking the dismissal of Maretti, who has caused two previous accidents, as well as monetary damages, which would be awarded to Abigail as Monica's next of kin.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Kenneth Lonergan
- Cinematography: Ryszard Lenczewski
- Edited by: Mike Fay, Anne McCabe
- Music: Nico Muhly
- Production design: Dan Leigh
- Produced by: Gary Gilbert, Sydney Pollack, Scott Rudin
Cast
- Anna Paquin as Lisa Cohen
- J. Smith-Cameron as Joan
- Mark Ruffalo as Maretti
- Jeannie Berlin as Emily
- Jean Reno as Ramon
- Sarah Steele as Becky
- John Gallagher Jr. as Darren
- Cyrus Hernstadt as Curtis
- Allison Janney as Monica Patterson
- Kieran Culkin as Paul
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Fox Searchlight Pictures, Camelot Pictures, Gilbert Films, Mirage Enterprises
- Budget: $14,000,000
- Box office: $46,495
- Themes: new york city, opera, police, truth, bus, investigation, witness, teacher, road accident, relationship
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