‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles’ Review: Elle Fanning and Star-Studded Cast Delight in Quirky Book Adaptation

Apple TV’s “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” isn’t unpredictable because it’s slightly irreverent. It’s not unpredictable because it’s a comedy and a drama, and dramedies skew that way. Nope, it’s unpredictable because this quirky, offbeat series, based on the book of the same name by Rufi Thorpe, is about love in all its many forms.

In this case, you might say love is actually the spoiler alert.

Elle Fanning plays Margo, a junior college student who excels in her English Lit class and dreams of a writing career. Things are going well until she falls for the old sleep-with-your-professor-temptation (and does!). All of her friends beg her to break it off but like a freight train careening and bound to run off the track, she just keeps going until the pink on the stick tells her she’s pregnant.

Her married professor (Michael Agarano) suddenly backs off, offering only financial assistance for an abortion. Margo’s youthful mom (Michelle Pfeiffer) reminds her that she, too, was a young mother and warns that her “life as she once knew it is over.”

But Margo quickly bonds with the baby she is carrying and decides to have it despite objections. However, when two (played by Sasha Diamond and Kailena Mai) of her three roommates move out of her spacious apartment and her long-lost, substance-abusing dad (Nick Offerman) moves in, she realizes she’s got to get her hands on some cash. Thus begins the long and winding road to employment for a newly minted mom and college dropout.

What makes “Margo” fun to watch is that every problem, mishap and humorous incident is notched up a bit for laughs or tears yet never seems over the top. Whether she’s hugely pregnant and literally rolling on the floor of an upscale department store in discomfort, putting lettuce on her breasts to relieve pain or badly singing ‘80s stadium songs in a bar with her mom, it all seems appropriate.

And the cast is equally offbeat and amazing, including Fanning, Pfeiffer, Offerman, Agarano, Greg Kinnear, Marcia Gay Harden and Nicole Kidman, yes Nicole Kidman. Kidman has starred in so many vehicles in the last 10 years so why not this one too? She’s also an executive producer on “Margo,” as is Elle (and Dakota) Fanning and Pfeiffer.

Here, Pfeiffer leans into her aging beauty by giving her character the vanity of a woman who has always been lauded for her looks. She gives Margo’s mom both a vulnerability and a lot of sass with just a dash of trailer park.
Harden, though in limited scenes, makes the best of her role as the professor’s mean mother with Cruella de Ville-style streaks in her hair (wig?) and a very seriocomic delivery of her dialogue. Watch her go head-to-head with Pfeiffer and neither is chewing scenery.

Award-winning character actor Nick Offerman elevates everything he is in and it’s no exception here. As Margo’s befuddled, drug-addicted, ex-pro wrestler absentee father, he offers up another good portrayal of what it’s like to fail and start again. His paternal chemistry with Fanning is winning and a joy.

Celebrated actor Greg Kinnear, whose career as an actor has long eclipsed his first one (as a talk show host, remember?), strikes the right balance between religious nerd and caring human being as the fiancé of Pfeiffer’s character and Margo’s soon-to-be stepdad.

It seems Fanning’s job is not only to bring Margo to life but to have an intimate, relatable connection to every other character in the ensemble. And she does that well, playing a young woman whose responsibilities to herself, her baby, her parents, her friends and the world must somehow be met. She does that and then some by giving Margo’s personality both the solitary life of a writer and the energy of a young woman still finding herself.

There are no slackers within the rest of the cast. Thaddea Graham as Margo’s loyal, spunky roommate Susie, and Caitlin McGee as her opinionated childhood friend steal a bit of the spotlight. Look for some surprises such as appearances by rapper Rico Nasty and “Anora” actress Lindsay Normington, plus a cameo by a legendary actress.

The first episode might reel you in or feel like a slow burn (it was for this reviewer). If so, don’t give up, “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” gets steadily more intriguing and pretty soon its measures of love become truly irresistible.

“Margo’s Got Money Troubles” premieres Wednesday on Apple TV.

The post ‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles’ Review: Elle Fanning and Star-Studded Cast Delight in Quirky Book Adaptation appeared first on TheWrap.