Maggie's Plan
A charming screwball romance about quarter-life malaise.
Overview
In Frances Ha, Greta Gerwig became the on-screen embodiment of a predicament most twenty-somethings can relate to: knowing what you don't want out of life, rather than what you do. In Mistress America, she offered a different side of failing to achieve your dreams, this time from a slightly older perspective. Now, in Maggie's Plan, she grapples with the fact that you can't control everything, no matter how hard you try. Consider it the next phase in her ongoing examination of the idiosyncrasies of quarter-life malaise.
Written and directed by Rebecca Miller (The Private Lives of Pippa Lee) based on an unpublished novel by Karen Rinaldi, the film explores two schemes hatched by the eponymous Maggie (Gerwig), a college careers advisor whose life is...well...a bit of a mess. When the film opens, she's telling her married best pal Tony (Bill Hader) about her intention to become a mother using sperm donated by their high school classmate turned pickle entrepreneur Guy (Travis Fimmel). Cut forward three years and she instead has a daughter with John (Ethan Hawke), an anthropology professor and aspiring novelist who's struggling to cut ties with his imposing ex-wife Georgette (Julianne Moore).
Although it may certainly sound like one, to simply call Maggie's Plan a romantic comedy doesn't quite do the film justice. While the situations the characters find themselves in are by no means unique, there's a level of intricacy to all the major players that ensures Miller's screenplay feels as authentic as it does amusing. When Maggie tries to muster a polite response to Guy's offer to help her get pregnant "the old-fashioned way", for example, her awkwardness feels ripped from reality.
That's the gift that both Gerwig and Miller bring — an understanding of how to convey life's ups and downs in a way that's equally playful and relatable. The two prove as an apt a pair as Gerwig and Frances Ha filmmaker Noah Baumbach, yet they're not the feature's only standouts. Adopting a severe Danish accent that she takes time to settle into, Moore proves both hilarious and surprisingly sympathetic.
Of course, with its jaunty jazz score and New York setting, Maggie's Plan can't escape the shadow of other, similar films gone by. It's not only Baumbach that springs to mind, but Woody Allen — though any resemblance is likely by design. Miller has crafted a movie knowingly comprised of familiar parts, but cleverly filled with astute reflections that tell the tale from a fresh perspective.
Information
- The 11 Best Day Spas in and Around Brisbane
- The Most-Secluded Retreats You Can Book in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland
- The Five Best Rivers for Swimming in Near Brisbane
- The Four Parks in Brisbane Where You Can BYO Drinks
- The 14 Best Hotels In Melbourne
- Ten of the Best Airbnb Stays You Can Book Around Australia