'Maggie's Plan': Some of it plays like a generic indie rom-com
I鈥檝e never quite connected with Greta Gerwig in her movies. She鈥檚聽obviously funny and talented, but there鈥檚 a gawky amateurishness to her聽acting that often wears thin for me. She needs a strong hand to rein in her聽cutesy eccentricities but most of the time her directors indulge her聽excesses. (An exception, although I鈥檓 in the minority in thinking so, was聽her teaming with Barry Levinson in the underrated 鈥淭he Humbling鈥澛爋pposite Al Pacino.)
Gerwig is still doing her Greta Gerwig act in 鈥淢aggie鈥檚聽Plan,鈥� but, in聽her best moments, there鈥檚 also a slyness and a depth to what she does. Her聽Maggie聽is an employee in the New School in Greenwich Village who聽cozies up to John Harding (Ethan Hawke), an adjunct professor聽and novelist who is married to Georgette (Julianne Moore), a Danish聽intellectual and fellow professor whose achievements overshadow his.
Maggie, who is single, wants to have a child and is tired of waiting for聽Mr. Right. Although John has all the earmarks of Mr. Wrong (at least for聽her), the inevitable happens. Except there鈥檚 a twist involving聽Maggie聽and聽Georgette that is, both thematically and emotionally, anything but聽predictable, and yet seems entirely believable.
Writer-director Rebecca Miller never wrests her movie free of its聽associations with the films of Woody Allen and Noah Baumbach, and聽some of it plays like a generic indie film rom-com. But the actors, for the聽most part, are sprightly, especially, improbably, Moore, sporting a Danish聽accent a mile wide. That she is entirely convincing in the role, and not a聽joke, is a tribute to her astonishing versatility. Grade: B (Rated R for language and some sexuality.)
