7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.2 |
A young woman witnesses a bus accident, and is caught up in the aftermath, where the question of whether or not it was intentional affects many people's lives.
Starring: Anna Paquin, J. Smith-Cameron, Mark Ruffalo, Jeannie Berlin, Jean RenoDrama | 100% |
Coming of age | 12% |
Melodrama | 12% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
In the time since Margaret was filmed, way back when in 2005, two of its producers—Sidney Pollack and Anthony Minghella—died, its young star Anna Paquin went on to True Blood fame, numerous lawsuits were batted about between Fox Searchlight Pictures and writer/director Kenneth Lonergan, and none other than Martin Scorsese and his longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker were brought in to help shape the film in the cutting room. Margaret was initially scheduled for release in 2007, but only got a limited theatrical showing in September of last year, its six-year delay from shoot to screen the product of studio disputes and presumed perfectionism on the part of Lonegan, a playwright-turned- director whose first film, 2000's moving You Can Count on Me, won numerous awards and established him as a filmmaker to watch. It's perhaps unfair to call Margaret a sophomore slump, but it undeniably suffers all of the symptoms of a less-than-successful followup to a well- regarded debut—it's too long and too ambitious by half, jam-packed with ideas but poorly organized. The film feels over-deliberated, like a painting done by an artist who doesn't know when to stop and ends up marring the piece's original beauty.
No surprise here, Margaret looks like a film that was shot in the mid-2000s. I don't say that in a disparaging way, but just to note that cinematography has indeed changed quite a bit in the last few years, especially with the progressive acceptance of digital camerawork. Even many low- budget films today look sharper, glossier, and more punchy than Margaret, which was shot on 35mm with a rather grainy film stock. That grain structure has been left intact, though, thankfully—Fox learned their lesson after the DNR'd-to-oblivion Predator rerelease—and I suspect the Blu-ray's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is largely true to source. Clarity is noticeably variable; many longer and even medium shots seem quite soft, while close-ups have a decent level of high definition detail, with visible skin and clothing textures. The film's color palette is realistically tempered and the image is plenty dense. Strong hues are adequately vidid, skin tones are warm without going ruddy, and contrast is even-handed. Really, there are no substantial problems here—no edge enhancement, no compression woes, no encode glitches, etc. The one thing I did periodically notice were white flecks on the print, but these are few and far between.
20th Century Fox has given the film the usual lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound treatment, and the mix—while never particularly aggressive—suits the film well. The rear channels put out a modicum of city street ambience and directional effects occasionally waft out from the surrounds. It's enough to establish the environment and give some modicum of immersion, though there's nothing about the mix that stands out as remarkable beyond Nico Muhly's score, which features a main theme played on classical guitar. There are no hisses, pops, or drop-outs here, and everything sounds fairly cleanly recorded and reproduced, with a decently filled-out dynamic range. Dialogue is always clear and easy to understand, and for those that might need or want them, the disc includes English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles, along with Spanish and French Dolby Digital 5.1 dubs.
The Blu-ray disc includes no special features whatsoever, but on the included DVD you'll find Lonegan's "Extended Cut," which, in an interview with Indiewire, the director referred to as "just another version with a bit more of everything in it." That seems accurate. The structure or story of the film hasn't changed in many significant ways, but some alternate takes are used, individual scenes are often longer, and some feature a simultaneously interesting and distracting technique of allowing dialogue from random strangers/extras to intrude on the main characters' conversations. I'm not sure it works entirely, but it does add a certain sense of realism. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the extended version will ever make it to Blu-ray, but I think most will find the shorter cut preferential anyway.
Woody Allen by way of Chekhov and Krzysztof Kieślowski, Margaret is a poetic coming-of-age morality play set in post-9/11 New York. Sadly, as that last sentence implies, it's also a bit too ambitious for its own good and has issues with pacing and thematic coherency. The real story of Margaret is the years-long struggle to get it finished, and for this reason alone it's worth checking out as a kind of cinematic curiosity. That's not to say there isn't value here; the film is moving at times and it features several fine performances. Just don't expect a long-to-fruition undiscovered masterpiece. 20th Century Fox's Blu-ray release does the film itself justice with true-to-intent picture and sound, but there are no extras on the disc whatsoever, and the "Extended Cut" advertised on the slipcover is actually included on a separate DVD, not via seamless branching. Also note that the film is an Amazon exclusive for the time being. At $27.99, the price is a bit steep for a blind buy, but if you enjoyed the film theatrically it's probably worth picking up.
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