It's Glace Bay, Nova Scotia in the 1940s. Almost everyone works in the dangerous coal mine and there is a Chinese diner in town. Margaret MacNeil (Helena Bonham Carter) falls for bagpipe-playing Neil Currie (Clive Russell) who got himself fired from the mine. She lives with her mother Catherine (Kate Nelligan), younger brother Jimmy, father Angus (Kenneth Welsh), grandfather Dunald who suffers from black lung, and others. She continues to lose family to the mine. Jimmy has an illicit romance with mine manager's daughter Marilyn. Neil uses discarded materials to build a house overlooking the sea for Margaret. In a flashforward at the start of the movie, Margaret is running a museum in the house which horrified a visitor sending her running.Paraphrasing the famous Se7en line. What's in the Museum!? Other than that, the story is a little rambling. The central relationship isn't that dramatic. There are very few hurdles for their pairing. It delivers a compelling sense of the place. The tension is simply not that high. It does have a shock for the ending. I certainly understand the difficulty in adapting the novel but it's not dramatic enough (except for What's in the Museum!).

Margaret's Museum (1995) UK/Canada 114m, Colour Director: Mort Ransen; Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Clive Russell, Craig Olejnik, Kate Nelligan, Kenneth Welsh, Andrea MorrisMargaret's Museum is a dark and tragic love story about a woman's grief and defiance after losing much of her family to the coal mines in Glace Bay Nova Scotia during the 1940s. Based on Sheldon Currie's 1979 novel entitled The Glace Bay Miners' Museum, Margaret's Museum is a beautifully photographed and wonderfully scored film with haunting and unforgettable images and melodies. A deeply moving and original film, Helena Bonham Carter and Clive Russell give remarkably convincing and heartfelt performances in this powerful film about life and death in small Canadian coal mining community (Klaus Ming September 2013).

A film of almost inconceivable beauty & directness. Helena Bonham-Carter as sniffling Margaret is well past grand, as is Clive Russell as her Neil, with bagpipes, & Kate Nelligan as Mom. Not for the foolishly squeamish, but all others will experience grave, if occasionally hilarious, delight.

Margaret's Museum is a powerful movie which takes place in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. It is a movie made from a short story written by Sheldon Currie.Helena Bonham Carter and Kate Nelligan are sheer excellence in every which way. Also, Clive Russell, and all the other actors are brilliant and their roles are believable, and sometimes shocking. I forgot while watching this movie that it indeed is a movie .. it seem so very real.The beginning of the movie will grab your attention completely; the middle explains almost everything; and the ending will shock you. Completely.It was about time I finally watched a movie I had no idea in my wildest imagination what the ending would be like.I love this movie and will watch it many, many times. I also think the photography, the music scores (Rankin Family), etc., are also excellent.Do I rate this movie a 10? You bet!