Margaret

Margaret

Lisa is a very intense seductive teenager. She goes to a private school. She lives with her stage actor mother and younger brother .Mother cares about her children but is never home. Her job requires her to work in the evenings. Lisa can ‘fly off the handle’ at anything. She is often loud and speaks her mind. She is flirtatious beyond her years. In many ways she is more mature than her classmates and in other ways she is still a young kid. She wears her skirt so short (really short) and thinks nothing of being flirtatious with the boys in her class as well as her teachers. Anna Paquin plays the role of Lisa. She is the total picture and quite amazing.
I did enjoy the classroom scenes. There are several discussions amongst the students on political topics. The discussions are a reflection of what is happening throughout the world. One young girl is from Syria and she has a different perspective on the Arab population from many of the other students. Lisa and the Arab student have very strong screaming matches. They get into fights on the Middle East situation as well as yelling out their opinion about terrorists. The students sit in a circle and the discussions are loud and fearful.
The classroom situation seems rather informal at times. Matt Damon has a small role as the math teacher. He isn’t on the screen for a long time but his relationship with Lisa is very powerful. We see Lisa at her most flirtatious self and view the teacher as weak and not taking charge. Mathew Broderick is the English teacher. He reads a poem to the class. It is this poem that gives the title to the film. (Very obscure)
Lisa flirts with a bus driver on her way home from school. He is actually driving and she runs after the bus calling out to him. There is an accident and a woman is killed. Lisa cradles the dying woman in her arms. Initially Lisa lies to the police and tells them the light was green when the bus crossed the road.
She is troubled by the accident and by her lying. It all begins to affect her behavior. She gets into constant fights with her mother. She yells out at the students during discussion in class. She does drugs and tempts several of the young boys. We witness her first sexual encounter.
She realizes that she has made a mistake and tries to locate the dead woman’s family. Lisa goes to the police to give her latest version of the accident and tries to get the driver fired.
The story is about the trauma in Lisa’s life and how she goes about trying to repair the damage to her soul as well as the family of the dead woman.
It is an excellent cast. I found the story very upsetting. It is certainly not a feel good story but I did have to admire the production.