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Margaret
Academy Award® nominated writer and director Kenneth Lonergan has written a stirring drama that was called "extraordinarily ambitious" by Time and "a film of rare beauty and shocking gravity" by Rolling Stone. Delayed for 4 years in post-production, the film was finally released in 2011, with a director's cut following on DVD in 2012. Our edition will include the scripts of the full director's cut, along with an introduction and key tie-in art.
Margaret is the story of a Manhattan teenager whose life is profoundly altered after witnessing a terrible accident. It is the extraordinary journey of an emotional teen who abides by her moral code and wants to set things right, but whose innocent ideals come crashing against the harsh realities of the adult world. It is a story of youth, love, the consequences of mistakes, and the fundamental questions of morality as faced by a teenager in an extraordinary situation.
Margaret is the story of a Manhattan teenager whose life is profoundly altered after witnessing a terrible accident. It is the extraordinary journey of an emotional teen who abides by her moral code and wants to set things right, but whose innocent ideals come crashing against the harsh realities of the adult world. It is a story of youth, love, the consequences of mistakes, and the fundamental questions of morality as faced by a teenager in an extraordinary situation.
256 pages, Paperback
First published September 3, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 7, 2025
Margaret, written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan
8 out of 10
Even if Margaret is not such a splendid work as the most recent fabulous, outstanding Manchester by the Sea, for which the author has won The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, it is still remarkable.
Indeed, there are some themes that the two motion pictures have in common - the importance of the truth, coping with adversity and trauma, the problem of guilt and retribution.
Anna Paquin is one of the youngest winners of an Academy Award - if not the youngest? - for her supporting role in Jane Campion's The Piano, a wondrous feature in which she was only eleven, actually I think she was ten years old.
She has the leading role in Margaret, where she is Lisa Cohen, a seventeen year old high school student.
Lisa lives with her mother, but she raises the possibility of moving with her divorced father, for one year.
When she mentions this prospect, her mother is infuriated and makes a scene.
As she wants to get a cowboy hat, the heroine sees a bus driver wearing an interesting one and tries to find where has he bought it from.
The problem is that the bus is moving, the discussion takes place in awkward, improper circumstances.
Maretti is the name of the driver portrayed by Mark Ruffalo.
This young man is looking at the teenager, while the lights turn to red and a pedestrian walks in front of the moving bus.
She is killed and in the first stage of the investigation, Lisa states that it was an accident and the color was green for the bus.
Maretti has the same deposition and the case is soon closed.
At one point, one of the detectives mentions the fact that without an intent to kill, it is next to impossible to prosecute and condemn the driver, if when the crucial witness has changed the initial statement.
Which she does, following a process of becoming aware of the moral aspect, the implications of having basically lied in the first instance.
This change of heart made sense for this viewer, as opposed to so many of those involved, especially Maretti.
The latter is flabbergasted to see the teenager walk into his apartment, where she tells him and his wife that she wants to have a word.
In private...
Lisa Cohen explains that she will change her statement, but wants to talk to him first and that he knows very well that the color was green.
Even more dramatic, incriminating and terrible, he was not watching the road!
She tries to remind him the way they looked at each other, as she was looking for the hat and other such details.
The driver is appalled, aghast and infuriated.
What will get with all this?
How will my family survive?
There is nothing we can do for her, she is not coming back!
Words to this effect and more, after which he becomes rather aggressive, asking for her phone number and appearing to be ready to sue her.
Meanwhile, the police detectives in charge are not pleased with her change of heart at first, then annoyed and outright angry when she talks to a superior officer to complain about the manner in which the investigation had been conducted and more.
And there are many sidelines, adjacent characters that have their own experiences, dramas, personages played by great artists like:
Matt Damon aka a high school teacher, Jean Reno as the man who takes Lisa' s mother out to see Turandot and on other occasions, the writer- director himself portrays the divorced father.
Matthew Broderick in the role of another teacher, John, has some excellent moments.
In class, there are discussions over what Shakespeare has meant or perhaps he hasn't, in one of his quotes which mentions the gods and their attitudes towards human beings that they treat or regard as flies.
While a student has very insightful, if unusual perspective on the matter, the teacher becomes abrasive, rigid, and ultimately obnoxious and plain wrong.
There are many gems, brilliant scenes that make this film memorable and excellent, if perhaps a little too long at two hours and thirty minutes.
Finally, there is the issue of the guilt of Lisa Cohen, who was so determined to make Maretti pay - and she is right to seek justice- but she shares in the blame, for she is the one who kept distracting the culpable drive.
Yes, she is a teenager and a driver has a tremendous responsibility, first and foremost he has to watch the road and the colors of the traffic lights, no matter what others do around him!
Thought provoking, intriguing and challenging!
8 out of 10
Even if Margaret is not such a splendid work as the most recent fabulous, outstanding Manchester by the Sea, for which the author has won The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, it is still remarkable.
Indeed, there are some themes that the two motion pictures have in common - the importance of the truth, coping with adversity and trauma, the problem of guilt and retribution.
Anna Paquin is one of the youngest winners of an Academy Award - if not the youngest? - for her supporting role in Jane Campion's The Piano, a wondrous feature in which she was only eleven, actually I think she was ten years old.
She has the leading role in Margaret, where she is Lisa Cohen, a seventeen year old high school student.
Lisa lives with her mother, but she raises the possibility of moving with her divorced father, for one year.
When she mentions this prospect, her mother is infuriated and makes a scene.
As she wants to get a cowboy hat, the heroine sees a bus driver wearing an interesting one and tries to find where has he bought it from.
The problem is that the bus is moving, the discussion takes place in awkward, improper circumstances.
Maretti is the name of the driver portrayed by Mark Ruffalo.
This young man is looking at the teenager, while the lights turn to red and a pedestrian walks in front of the moving bus.
She is killed and in the first stage of the investigation, Lisa states that it was an accident and the color was green for the bus.
Maretti has the same deposition and the case is soon closed.
At one point, one of the detectives mentions the fact that without an intent to kill, it is next to impossible to prosecute and condemn the driver, if when the crucial witness has changed the initial statement.
Which she does, following a process of becoming aware of the moral aspect, the implications of having basically lied in the first instance.
This change of heart made sense for this viewer, as opposed to so many of those involved, especially Maretti.
The latter is flabbergasted to see the teenager walk into his apartment, where she tells him and his wife that she wants to have a word.
In private...
Lisa Cohen explains that she will change her statement, but wants to talk to him first and that he knows very well that the color was green.
Even more dramatic, incriminating and terrible, he was not watching the road!
She tries to remind him the way they looked at each other, as she was looking for the hat and other such details.
The driver is appalled, aghast and infuriated.
What will get with all this?
How will my family survive?
There is nothing we can do for her, she is not coming back!
Words to this effect and more, after which he becomes rather aggressive, asking for her phone number and appearing to be ready to sue her.
Meanwhile, the police detectives in charge are not pleased with her change of heart at first, then annoyed and outright angry when she talks to a superior officer to complain about the manner in which the investigation had been conducted and more.
And there are many sidelines, adjacent characters that have their own experiences, dramas, personages played by great artists like:
Matt Damon aka a high school teacher, Jean Reno as the man who takes Lisa' s mother out to see Turandot and on other occasions, the writer- director himself portrays the divorced father.
Matthew Broderick in the role of another teacher, John, has some excellent moments.
In class, there are discussions over what Shakespeare has meant or perhaps he hasn't, in one of his quotes which mentions the gods and their attitudes towards human beings that they treat or regard as flies.
While a student has very insightful, if unusual perspective on the matter, the teacher becomes abrasive, rigid, and ultimately obnoxious and plain wrong.
There are many gems, brilliant scenes that make this film memorable and excellent, if perhaps a little too long at two hours and thirty minutes.
Finally, there is the issue of the guilt of Lisa Cohen, who was so determined to make Maretti pay - and she is right to seek justice- but she shares in the blame, for she is the one who kept distracting the culpable drive.
Yes, she is a teenager and a driver has a tremendous responsibility, first and foremost he has to watch the road and the colors of the traffic lights, no matter what others do around him!
Thought provoking, intriguing and challenging!
Did Not Finish
April 21, 2020Dnf page 106
I really didn’t like this book. I haven’t seen the movie and have no plans to, so I really don’t care. I watched the trailer and it doesn’t seem like a movie I would want to watch. I’ve only read a screenplay one other time, and at that time I had watched the movie first so I actually enjoyed reading it.
I have to say that my aunt’s young adult lit class had a sucky reading list. She took it at a different college from me and gave me most of the books when she was done. The only one I’ve actually liked is The Hate U Give.
I didn’t like Lisa from the start. I get that what she witnessed affected her, but even the brief interactions we saw before that she was acting really bratty. With the screenplay, we don’t really get her reactions and internal thoughts about everything. Maybe this would be clear in the film, but in the screenplay we don’t get to see it, and I feel like I need to understand that if she is to be a likeable character. I almost feel like the whole thing isn’t even about the accident, because it is barely mentioned after that in the section I read. I did take a peek at the final pages and it was about something completely different.
Reading the dialogue in this form, it seemed really cheesy and cringey. Maybe the film has great cinematography, but I don’t think the dialogue alone would carry it. It’s not really poetic or well-written. Maybe hearing it in the film would be different, but reading it in my head I just can’t really imagine it being that serious, even during the scene when the accident occurs.
I really didn’t like this book. I haven’t seen the movie and have no plans to, so I really don’t care. I watched the trailer and it doesn’t seem like a movie I would want to watch. I’ve only read a screenplay one other time, and at that time I had watched the movie first so I actually enjoyed reading it.
I have to say that my aunt’s young adult lit class had a sucky reading list. She took it at a different college from me and gave me most of the books when she was done. The only one I’ve actually liked is The Hate U Give.
I didn’t like Lisa from the start. I get that what she witnessed affected her, but even the brief interactions we saw before that she was acting really bratty. With the screenplay, we don’t really get her reactions and internal thoughts about everything. Maybe this would be clear in the film, but in the screenplay we don’t get to see it, and I feel like I need to understand that if she is to be a likeable character. I almost feel like the whole thing isn’t even about the accident, because it is barely mentioned after that in the section I read. I did take a peek at the final pages and it was about something completely different.
Reading the dialogue in this form, it seemed really cheesy and cringey. Maybe the film has great cinematography, but I don’t think the dialogue alone would carry it. It’s not really poetic or well-written. Maybe hearing it in the film would be different, but reading it in my head I just can’t really imagine it being that serious, even during the scene when the accident occurs.
December 11, 2018
Margaret deals with a very sensitive issue. It brings up ethical and moral questions.
Lisa is a girl who seems to desperately be searching for just one adult in her life who will act like an adult. She needs guidance and is seeking it from anyone over the age of twenty.
This screenplay deals with important subject matter in a unique way.
To watch it in its entirety you will need the extended version.
Lisa is a girl who seems to desperately be searching for just one adult in her life who will act like an adult. She needs guidance and is seeking it from anyone over the age of twenty.
This screenplay deals with important subject matter in a unique way.
To watch it in its entirety you will need the extended version.
February 4, 2020
Wanted to read it after i saw it (extended edition) and liked it. Lonergan really writes like that! Choreographed crosstalk. I would worry that reading this was an empty exercise because I have already seen the film but reading scenes between Joan and Ramon helped me understand why they were in the film, which I may have missed in watching.
We are all talking past one another, but sometimes we stop.
We are all talking past one another, but sometimes we stop.
June 27, 2020
2.5 out of 5 stars.
I think a quote from the screenplay itself sums it up best.
“Now that they all read how great it is, we get these big standing ovations every night, and it’s the exact same show as before”
“...it’s a wonderful performance”
“No, it’s not... it’s just the audience reacts differently if they’ve been told it’s good.”
I think a quote from the screenplay itself sums it up best.
“Now that they all read how great it is, we get these big standing ovations every night, and it’s the exact same show as before”
“...it’s a wonderful performance”
“No, it’s not... it’s just the audience reacts differently if they’ve been told it’s good.”
February 8, 2022
“i don’t know why i take such a dire view of things, i really don’t.” this may or may not be my favourite movie <3
August 2, 2023
Ok it's Margaret lockdown!!!!!!! Has anyone seen Margaret?
I cried for the "wrong" reasons in the beginning, for simply being with these characters as they go through life but my cry at the very end aligns with the standard reason one would cry reading this screenplay. The mother-daughter relationship at the heart of this! There's such an authenticity of that connection (and at many points a lack thereof from understandable misunderstanding. Among the mother and daughter, among the other relationships across the board.)
I liked the humor--when there's funny little things and wit. It's funnier on the page, it comes across clearer. I've accidentally found a new hack, in that the best way to watch a movie can be to read it.
I cried for the "wrong" reasons in the beginning, for simply being with these characters as they go through life but my cry at the very end aligns with the standard reason one would cry reading this screenplay. The mother-daughter relationship at the heart of this! There's such an authenticity of that connection (and at many points a lack thereof from understandable misunderstanding. Among the mother and daughter, among the other relationships across the board.)
I liked the humor--when there's funny little things and wit. It's funnier on the page, it comes across clearer. I've accidentally found a new hack, in that the best way to watch a movie can be to read it.
March 9, 2014
I never read a screenplay before and while it was interesting, it definitely is not the same as reading a book. I missed being able to read what the characters were feeling and thinking.
March 24, 2021
Absolute genius
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews