Review: Maggie's Plan

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Bossypants.

Maggie (Greta Gerwig) is a 30 something in New York who can't hold down a relationship, but decides she wants to have a child of her own as she's 100% capable of doing so. She finds a token interesting and good looking dude named Guy (Travis Fimmell) to be her sperm donor, but wants no relationship with him. By change she meets and older, married fellow teacher/wannabe author named John (Ethan Hawke) who she falls in love with after believing she can save him from his shrill wife, Georgette (Julianne Moore)

Look, it's hard not to like Greta Gerwig. She's like Zooey Deschanel was in the mid 2000's; the current indie darling. She's always likable and gives a good performance, but aside from that, nothing in this movie felt natural. Maggie and her friends all speak in platitudes, the dialogue was downright cringe worthy at times. It's also fairly predictable, and as we got closer towards the end, I realized that I didn't understand why Maggie would choose John at all. He had no redeeming qualities.

It tries hard to be a quirky indie drama but just ends up in stilted territory instead. While it has some plus sides, the script lets down the talented actors.

Recommended: No

Grade: C

Memorable Quote: "I want my own bubble." - Lily (Ida Rohatyn)

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 6, 2016 at 4:37 AM

    Ahhhhhh such a twist of emotions! I've never heard of this movie but at the mention of Greta Gerwig and Travis Fimmell had me practically foaming at the mouth, and then, well, it sounds like this wasn't very good at all :(
    - Allie

    ReplyDelete
  2. s.July 6, 2016 at 12:08 PM

    I don't like that Greta girl. I saw Frances Ha and was bored out of my mind. The premise looks interesting but it looks like another movie Moore made that no one will remember soon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJuly 7, 2016 at 11:08 AM

      I enjoyed Frances Ha, though I'm kind of shocked that I did because I was expecting to hate it. Moore has been on that kind of roll, hasn't she? She was great in Freeheld, but no one remembers that one either.

      Delete
  3. KatyJuly 8, 2016 at 11:52 PM

    Nice review! I wanted to check this out but the too-indie-hipster qualities of the trailer turned me off. Shame 'cause Greta could play more than the same Frances Ha esque character going on different 'adulting' escapades.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJuly 9, 2016 at 6:55 AM

      You are 100% right. She's very well put together in this movie, it's Ethan Hawke's character who is a damn mess.

      Delete

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