Helena Bonham Carter plays a gawky, iconoclastic teenager in a poor Canadian mining village who finds a kindred spirit when a tall, bagpipe-playing miner approaches her in a diner and follows her home. Carter's mother, Kate Nelligan, is a viciously misanthropic widow who, having lost both a son and a husband to the mines, views all human endeavor as ultimately futile and soul-crushing. Against Nelligan's wishes, Carter marries the miner, who tries to avoid the harsh, oppressive, dangerous mining life by getting fired and taking a job as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant. Meanwhile, Nelligan's son falls in love with the mining manager's daughter, and the two star-crossed lovers plot to leave the godforsaken hamlet with their souls intact. While there are limits to how entertaining a movie about dirt-poor miners and their horrible working conditions can be, for the most part, Margaret's Museum is a rewarding film. Carter in particular is excellent, managing the difficult task of making her character at once stubborn, clear-headed and insane. Nelligan turns in powerful work, giving her character an almost predatory glee as she feeds on the misery of the mining town. But the real star of the film is the town itself, which has a desolate beauty that makes the desperation of all its inhabitants seem doubly tragic.