Review: Maggie's Plan (2016)

[David N. Butterworth]

MAGGIE'S PLAN (2016)
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2016 David N. Butterworth

*** (out of ****)

In "Maggie's Plan," written and directed by Rebecca Miller, daughter of
renowned playwright Arthur Miller ("Death of a Salesman"), Greta Gerwig
plays, well... Greta Gerwig. And she's simply adorable. She pretty much
played herself in "Greenberg" (2010) and "Damsels in Distress" (2012) and
"Frances Ha" (2013) and she was adorable in those movies too. There's just
something about her--the wool tights, the flats, the prosaic delivery?
Adorable. You'd have to be a psycho to think otherwise. Ethan Hawke is in
"Maggie's Plan" too. He's also adorable... to look, at that is.
Character-wise he's a piece of work. Should I leave my wife? Should I get
back together with my wife? Oh tell me what to do, Maggie, do. John's
kind of pathetic that way. He's married to Georgette (Julianne Moore),
who's about as far from adorable as you can get, as tight as the bun that
sits atop her immaculately groomed head. What accent is Moore doing?
Scandinavian, maybe? Does she have a lisp too? It's hard to tell.
Maggie's friends are played by Bill Hader and Maya Rudolph. They're
adorable. Actually, they're *always* adorable. Hader's really come into
his own. He was surprisingly good in "The Skeleton Twins" alongside
Kristen Wiig. And also in "Trainwreck." Funny guy. Funny *and*
adorable. Rudolph's already made the successful switch from indies to
mainstream films like "Bridesmaids" and "Grown Ups 2" and "Shrek the
Third." Travis Fimmel is neither a familiar face nor a familiar name. He
grew up the youngest of three brothers on a dairy farm in Australia. How
adorable is that? In "Maggie's Plan" he plays Guy, The Sperm Donor.
That's Maggie's plan, see, to have a baby without the complications of,
say, a partner, until things get complicated. But it's fun to watch Greta
and Ethan and Bill and Maya, and Julianne is good but she's less fun to
watch, and Travis is also good but he's not in it much. I guess he's kind
of cute though, in that Peruvian *chullo* he's always wearing. Adorable.

--
David N. Butterworth
rec.arts.movies.reviews
butterwo...@gmail.com