--- title: "Margaret: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/margaret/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/margaret" critics_score: 67 critics_reviews: 18 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Margaret (2011): what the critics said Critics' score 67 from 18 reviews: 12 positive, 2 mixed, 4 negative. Most critics respond positively to Margaret, with praise clustering around Anna Paquin’s raw, committed performance and Kenneth Lonergan’s writing about guilt, responsibility and difficult human relationships. Jeannie Berlin also draws repeated praise, including from critics who find the film disappointing. Supporters value the sprawling New York setting and emotionally untidy storytelling, arguing that the film’s ambition and close observation make its unevenness worth accepting. The spread is wide, however, and structure is the main dividing point. What admirers find searching and expansive, detractors find overlong, unfocused or exhausting; even several positive reviews acknowledge these problems. Variety questions the credibility of characters’ motivations as well as the film’s unwieldy construction. The versions under discussion also matter: HeyUGuys offers emphatic praise for the extended cut’s treatment of responsibility, while Collider celebrates that version’s writing and lived-in world. The consensus favours the performances more consistently than the storytelling. ## Time Out — Keith Uhlich Rating 5/5. 29 November 2011. This is a glorious mess of frayed-edges filmmaking with staggering cumulative power. Paquin gives a ferociously committed performance as the film goes disturbingly and brilliantly off the rails after the central accident. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/margaret-1) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 December 2011. The critic finds the film a stunning, provocative and brilliant sprawling drama of modern life. He singles out Anna Paquin's raw, thin-skinned lead performance for particular praise. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/dec/01/margaret-film-review) ## Empire — Guy Lodge Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 9 December 2011. The critic finds the film a rich and searching drama despite its long production troubles, calling it knotty, ambitious and full of messy human truths. They single out Anna Paquin’s startling central performance for particular praise. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/margaret-review/) ## The New Yorker — Richard Brody Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 6 October 2011. The critic praises the film's vast ambition and sublime heights as a daring, post-9/11 vision of New York as the essence of American ideals, deeming its flaws insignificant in light of its core strengths. Performances, particularly Anna Paquin's and Jeannie Berlin's standout supporting turn, are highlighted as honors to the material. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/margaret-from-the-hudson-to-the-pacific) ## Evening Standard Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2012. The critic calls the film too long yet the work of a genius, praising its witty, generous multi-stranded storytelling and subtle truths. They single out the many strong female roles and especially Anna Paquin’s astounding lead performance. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/margaret-review-7427865.html) ## IndieWire — Eric Kohn Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 2 October 2011. The long-delayed film flopped at the box office but deserves better for its ambitious, messy exploration of guilt and human connections in post-9/11 New York. [Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/culture/review-lonergans-long-delayed-margaret-flopped-at-the-box-office-but-it-deserves-better-51871/) ## Slant Magazine — Kalvin Henely Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 3 October 2011. Lonergan crafts an unwieldy but far-reaching portrait of a teen's evolving self-awareness and the ripples of an accidental death, using jagged emotions and New York settings to mirror characters' agitation and dislocation. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/margaret/) ## The Hollywood Reporter — Sheri Linden Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 28 September 2011. Fine performances and bristling language compel in this overlong, often off-putting but well-observed New York story of a teen's guilt-driven quest for justice after a fatal accident she helped cause. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/margaret-film-review-241590/) ## Little White Lies — Ashley Clark Rating 3/3/3. 2 December 2011. The critic finds the narrative flabby and the central character unlikeable but notes that ideas and scenes spark along the way. Anna Paquin delivers a career-best performance in this important post-9/11 movie with its own troubled mythology. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/margaret) ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 3 October 2011. Festival review. More than a bit manic, the film has as much distinct wide-eyed personality as it has little focus and is likely to be misunderstood. Lonergan is a gifted writer whose sophomore effort occasionally howls with an energy and pain that summons the tangled emotions of adolescence. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/margaret/5032804.article) ## The New York Times — A.O. Scott Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 30 September 2011. The critic finds the film disappointing overall due to persistent editing problems that were never resolved, resulting in a messy and unfocused narrative despite its post-9/11 themes. Strong performances, especially from Anna Paquin as the lead and Jeannie Berlin in a supporting role, are singled out for praise amid the flaws. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/movies/margaret-directed-by-kenneth-lonergan-review.html) ## Los Angeles Times — Betsy Sharkey Fi1m's normalised score 35/100 (inferred from the text). 30 September 2011. The critic laments the film as an unrealized dream that teases with moments of brilliance but ultimately frustrates due to its fitful structure and the scars of its troubled post-production. Lonergan's talent for relationships and actors is praised, but the overambition and editing disputes left it a wasted opportunity compared to his debut. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-sep-30-la-et-margaret-20110930-story.html) ## Variety — Justin Chang Fi1m's normalised score 25/100 (inferred from the text). 28 September 2011. The critic describes the film as an angry, cacophonous, and unwieldy storm scarred by its legal and editing limbo, hyperarticulate yet rarely eloquent with scenes that lack credible motivation. It stands as a cautionary tale of sophomore overambition despite the strong ensemble cast including Anna Paquin. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2011/film/reviews/margaret-1117946247/) ## HeyUGuys — Jon Lyus Rating 5/5. 6 July 2012. The extended cut is praised as one of the best films of the past ten years, with Lonergan fixing the gaze on planes, criss-crossing conversations, and cold honesty in key scenes that build understanding of the lead character's sense of responsibility. The afterglow is powerful and rare. [Read the review](https://www.heyuguys.com/margaret-dvd-review-making-sense-of-the-madness-of-crowds/) ## Collider — Andre Dellamorte Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 5 August 2012. The critic praises Lonergan's writing and the film's lived-in world, highlighting strong performances especially from Jeannie Berlin and Anna Paquin in the extended cut. He views it as a masterpiece about America and retroactively one of the best films of 2011. [Read the review](https://collider.com/margaret-blu-ray-review/) ## The Playlist — Drew Taylor (positive section); The Playlist Staff / editor-in-chief (critical section) Rating B+. 28 September 2011. One critic hails it as a picaresque, beautifully rendered and affecting drama worth the wait, with an electric charge in performances and a grand opera finale that forgives earlier messiness. The counter-review finds a good movie inside but calls the theatrical cut unfocused, self-important and ultimately frustrating due to its baggy structure and shrill lead. [Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/review-minor-masterpiece-or-bloated-melodrama-margaret-could-be-the-ultimate-argument-starter-20110928/) ## Eye for Film — Anton Bitel Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 10 December 2011. The critic calls the released version a very good film with superb ensemble acting and a rich, messy collection of moral dilemmas that sticks in the mind. However, its political allegory has been blunted by bad timing and delayed release, making it feel like just another rites-of-passage indie. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/margaret-film-review-by-anton-bitel) ## The Wrap — Alonso Duralde Fi1m's normalised score 20/100 (inferred from the text). 29 September 2011. The critic calls the film a pretentious, talky bore and a mess that fails to engage despite its many incidents and themes. He singles out Jeannie Berlin's performance for praise as a standout amid the dullness. [Read the review](https://www.thewrap.com/messy-margaret-ambitious-incoherent-disaster-31405/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/margaret.md