Trailer Time: Margaret, starring Anna Paquin and Matt Damon

The road to seeing Margaret finally hit theaters has been a long, bumpy one fraught with legal entanglements. The follow-up directorial effort by Kenneth Lonergan(You Can Count On Me), the film stars Anna Paquin as a flirtatious teen whose reckless behavior inadvertently causes a fatal bus accident. Matt Damon stars as one of her teachers she seems to form some sort of relationship with. Mark Ruffalo, Allison Janney, Jean Reno, and Matthew Broderick also star.

Part of the issue surrounding the film had to do with Lonergan's rare status as a director with "final cut", which meant that neither studio or the producers could release anything other than his own vision. Margaret was completed way back in 2005(!!!), and Lonergan has been editing the film ever since. Screenings were set up then cancelled back in 2006 because Lonergan couldn't decide on a cut he liked. Lawsuits were filed, blah blah blah, and now finally we have a completed film, although the 150 minute run time indicates Lonergan didn't cut a hell of a lot out. Frankly I'm amazed he had final cut rights to begin with based solely on You Can Count On Me, although it did get nominated for two Academy Awards.

A trailer has been released for Margaret ahead of it's September 30th release, and it looks like an incoherent, heavy handed mess. Kinda reminds me of another film Mark Ruffalo starred in which was equally misguided, Reservation Road.  Here's hoping the performances by the extraordinary talent involved will make this film better than it appears here...