El plan de Maggie

Greetings again from the darkness. A significant portion of Woody Allen's film career has been projects that seem designed to appeal to (sometimes only) the New York intellectual sub-culture. You know the type … those who thrive on talking (incessantly) about all the things they know, often without really accomplishing anything themselves. They are the kind of people we usually laugh at, rather than with. Filmmaker Rebecca Miller appears ready to accept the passing of the Woody Allen baton, and at a minimum, her latest is heavily influenced by his comedic-brain food.

Ms. Miller casts perfectly for her first film in six plus years (The Secret Life of Pippa Lee, 2009). Greta Gerwig plays Maggie, whose ever-evolving "plan" is both the title and focus of the film. Ethan Hawke plays John, the middle-aged crisis guy who wants desperately to be showered with attention. Julianne Moore plays Georgette, John's slightly odd and brilliant wife, and mother to their two kids. Other key players include Travis Fimmel as Guy, a pickle entrepreneur and the center piece to Maggie's master plan; Bill Hader and Maya Rudolph as friends and confidants of Maggie; and Wallace Shawn, always a treat on screen.

The story starts out pretty simple, and then gets complicated, and then kind of loses focus before ending just right. Perpetually whining Maggie has admittedly given up on ever finding the kind of true love that results in a happy family. Because of this, she has recruited former schoolmate and math whiz and pickle dude Guy to supply the missing link for her artificial insemination. This leads to one of film's rare cheap laughs and one that not even the quirky Gerwig can pull off. A payroll mishap brings Maggie and aspiring novelist John (a 'ficto-critical anthropologist' by trade) together, and her willingness to read his writing and offer some support, is all it takes to finish off John's slowly disintegrating marriage to Georgette (Ms. Moore dusting off the Euro accent she used in The Big Lebowski).

Writer/director Miller is the daughter of famed playwright Arthur Miller, who wrote Death of a Salesman and was once married to Marilyn Monroe (after Joe DiMaggio). She also directed The Ballad of Jack and Rose, which starred her husband, Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis. Much of her latest film feels contrived and over-written … as if every scene carries the burden of generating a laugh out loud moment. It shouldn't be too surprising that the ultra talented Julianne Moore creates the most interesting character, though unfortunately, she has the least amount of screen time among the three leads. It's good for a few laughs, as well as some cringing … and an ending that actually works.

New Yorker Maggie Hardin (Greta Gerwig) wants to have a baby. Her relationships never last more than six months except her college romance with best friend Tony (Bill Hader) but that doesn't count. She decides to get sperm from college acquaintance, pickle entrepreneur Guy Childers. She works at an art school with Tony's wife Felicia (Maya Rudolph) and John Harding (Ethan Hawke). Maggie and John meet over a paycheck mixup and start a relationship over a novel he's trying to write. He's unhappily married to Columbia professor Georgette (Julianne Moore) with two kids.

The appeal of this movie depends a lot on one's appreciation of Gerwig's flighty, quirky persona. It's a rom-com where the romance is not the most likable. Harding starts off poorly and I never find him a good match for Maggie. Even the pickle guy is better although Tony could be the best if there is no Felicia. I'm actually glad at the turn in the second half of the movie and it becomes an anti-rom-com. The funniest relationship is between Maggie and Georgette. The movie could do with more of them together.

Greta Gerwig is one of the most interesting young stars in Hollywood. She consistently chooses interesting, under-the-radar projects that deal with human issues in a unique way. Maggie's Plan struggles to balance a grounded story that's centered upon one ridiculous romantic (or rather, unromantic) plan.

Goofy, eccentric, and mostly well-acted, Maggie's Plan is a good attempt at a Richard Linklater comedy-romance-drama plot. Really though, this film is a stranger version of Linklater's Before Trilogy. Only, it's much harder to relate to for a 22-year-old guy yet to be married or having any sort of mid-life crisis. The film deals with a half-dozen adult characters who have no clue what they truly want out of a relationship. Maggie, played by Gerwig, has an affair with John (Ethan Hawke) which ruins his marriage. In turn, the two get married, but struggle to bolster a relationship on their own. And so, thus gives us our main conflict, Maggie attempts to arrange John back up with his ex-wife to ease the pain of an actual divorce. Yes, it's that ridiculous.

I think this premise is better off as the basis of a straight comedy. At times, Maggie's Plan takes itself a little too seriously and forgets just how hard to believe its own ideas are. Should I be worried for the sanity of the main characters or should I take the ridiculousness for what it is and laugh about it? That's the constant argument I had throughout, and I don't know that the film even knows the answer.

The saving grace is that all of the actors are so dang charming and charismatic that it's hard to not like their work here. Gerwig has this angelic poise to her performance, and Ethan Hawke is Ethan Hawke. He's great in everything. Not to mention the levity brought by Bill Hader and Maya Rudolph in supporting roles, Maggie's Plan is one of the better ensemble cast assembled of this year. However, I found Julianne Moore's accent to be incredibly distracting. She's a world class actress, but I'm not sure this was her best work.

Maggie's Plan doesn't try to be the most charming nor the most poignant, but that's really the film's biggest issue. It has no real identity. When plot progression is made you don't know how to feel because there is no true basis or end goal in mind. So what could have been a goofily unpredictable rom-com-dram, turned out to be a disappointing and forgettable film for 2016.

+Gerwig is always charming

+Hader & Rudolph kill it

-Moore's accent

-Identity crisis

-Difficult to connect to

5.0/10

I think I got tricked into watching this movie by looking at the cast. There are undeniably good actors and actresses in this movie but that doesn't mean a certainty for success. On the contrary, it turned out to be a borefest. I couldn't wait for the end credits to appear. As for the comedy level I had two or three small grins, so nothing that will stay memorable for the rest of my life, like some other good comedies sometimes do. If you like endless debating about something dramatic like couples arguing about nothing then you might enjoy this. I can't believe I wasted my time with this one as it was clearly going to be really boring after only five minutes.

Woody Allen by way of Noah Baumbach is as close as I can come to give you an idea of how amusing, smart, and awkward Rebecca Miller's Maggie's Plan is. But, then, the adjectives as well describe indie-fav Greta Gerwig playing Maggie, whose plan to send her husband back to his ex wife reveals the layers that make Maggie one of the most complex romantic heroines in film.

Having fallen in love with hot "ficto-critical anthropologist" John (Ethan Hawke) at The New School, where she works as a career counselor for grad students, Maggie in her quietly innocent but manipulative way has a child with him after his divorce and their marriage. One of the comedic elements is her previous plan to have an artificial insemination from hippy pickle entrepreneur Guy (Travis Fimmel). She has no need to produce the baby in a normal way, an eccentricity never explained but for me felt to be another facet of her quirky and honest personality.

Although you can see the goofy and formulaic elements, underneath is Maggie's genuine wish to have a normal love, a situation not really meant for her given her wacky judgment and clueless orientation. Throughout the wryly wacky plot are numerous elements of truth in modern culture: having a child purposely without father involved; career taking precedence over family (Julienne Moore as high-powered ex-wife academic); step kids as complicating elements; and so on.

Writer/director Miller is deft at playing the elements off each other to make it feel as if all of this confusion is just part of a larger plan. Maggie, as a self-confessed meddler, goes through a labor-intensive series of challenges that go beyond the clichés of the romantic comedy formula. Although the accumulation of challenges may seem too many, each one resonates with a human predicament common to us all.

It's romantic comedy with brains and heart. So human.