Time Out says
Then the accident occurs – a woman, played with one-scene wonder by Allison Janney, gets hit by a bus – and Lisa’s life, as well as the movie containing her, goes disturbingly, brilliantly off the rails. The next two hours are the sort of no-holds-barred psychodrama that John Cassavetes specialised in: Lisa pinballs between raw emotional states while a number of vivid supporting characters, from Damon’s pushover schoolteacher to a brash Upper West Sider superbly played by Elaine May’s daughter Jeannie Berlin, circle her like moths round a frenzied flame. Paquin deserves the highest accolades for her ferociously committed performance, turning what could have been a privileged prep-school archetype into a scorching depiction of adolescent grief. And though not all of Lonergan’s conceits work on a scene-by-scene basis (an upper-crust womaniser 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.
Release Details
- Rated:15
- Release date:Friday 2 December 2011
- Duration:150 mins
Cast and crew
- Director:Kenneth Lonergan
- Screenwriter:Kenneth Lonergan
- Cast:
- Anna Paquin
- Kieran Culkin
- Mark Ruffalo
- Matt Damon
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