61
Metascore
28 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Time OutKeith UhlichTime OutKeith UhlichAnd though not all of Lonergan's conceits work on a scene-by-scene basis (an upper-crust womanizer played by Jean Reno skews a bit too close to caricature), the film has a cumulative power-solidified by a devastating opera-house finale-that's staggering. This is frayed-edges filmmaking at its finest.
- 80MovielineMovielineIt's not a film that's easy to love, but like a song you at first can't stand but then end up humming all day, it works its way past your defenses and curls in close.
- 70Village VoiceVillage VoiceIt's less successful as a human drama than as a near-Brechtian exercise in what human drama looks and sounds like - a distanced but often car-crash compelling portrait of a teen as an unfinished being.
- 70TimeMary PolsTimeMary PolsLonergan didn't bite off more than he could chew with Margaret - this is his personal moral gymnasium - but he did bite off more than others might want to chew.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanLonergan's dialogue can sweep you up in a whoosh of personality and ideas, but it's hard to see what, apart from ego, convinced him that this story was so epic.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenThe Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenFine performances and bristling language compel in this overlong, often off-putting but well-observed New York story.
- 50VarietyJustin ChangVarietyJustin ChangThis unwieldy drama of conscience in the wake of tragedy is hyperarticulate but rarely eloquent, full of wrenchingly acted scenes that lack credible motivation or devolve into shrill hectoring.
- 40New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinThis is the first bad movie that has ever made me call for a sequel - to get it all right.
- 30SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirRarely has a film with such a great cast and so many moments of terrific writing and such high dramatic goals been so messy and disorganized and fundamentally bad.