Maggie’s Plan **** (2015, Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore, Travis Fimmel) – Classic Movie Review 5761

Writer/director Rebecca Miller’s intelligent, heartfelt romantic comedy is amusing, smart and decidedly quirky. It gives Greta Gerwig a chance to shine as career counsellor Maggie, whose plan is to have a baby on her own – until she falls in love with married man John (Ethan Hawke), destroying his volatile marriage to the brilliant but impossible high-powered, career-driven academic Georgette (Julianne Moore).

It should be called Maggie’s Plans as she has quite a few of them – her previous plan was to have an artificial insemination by handsome hippy pickle entrepreneur Guy (Travis Fimmel)!

Anyhow, John divorces Georgette and marries Maggie and they have a daughter. Three years later, Maggie is out of love with her now husband John and has a new plan – to send him back to his ex wife Georgette, as Maggie has decided they are made for each other.

The innocent and honest but cool and manipulative childlike role of Maggie is tricky to pull off but Gerwig is perfect for it. She should be unbearable as a restless manipulative meddler but somehow Gerwig makes her sympathetic, even vaguely appealing, certainly real seeming, and a fascinating unique character. Hawke and Moore also shine in quirky roles, Moore scoring outside her comfort zone, Hawke more easily comfy in his usual zone.

Miller’s on top of it all, confidently steering her material into and out of its strange corners. She writes well, cleverly and wittily, with something, quite a few things, to say. Those things emerge easily from the plot, characters and dialogue. She writes well, too, keeping it all brisk and moving along brightly. Miller’s plan should be to make a lot more movies ASAP.

Bill Hader plays Tony, Maya Rudolph is Felicia and Wallace Shawn is Kliegler.

It is R rated for strong language and sexuality.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5761

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