- Actors: Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Travis Fimmel
- Director: Rebecca Miller
- Producers: Rebecca Miller, Rachel Horovitz, Damon Cadasis
- Format: Subtitled, Widescreen
- Language: English
- Subtitles: Russian, French, Polish, Mandarin Chinese, Thai, English
- Dubbed: Thai
- Audio Description: English
- Region: All Regions
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Rated: R
- Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
- Release Date: August 23, 2016
- Digital Copy Expiration Date: December 31, 2019
- Run Time: 99 minutes
It has become
difficult for me to decipher whether Greta Gerwig is a good actress, or simply
proficient at finding roles that resemble her own personality. Nearly every
character that the actress has played in the last decade feels like the same
bubbly, narcissistic, and irresponsible New Yorker. The characters get older as
Gerwig does, but they are maturing at a glacial rate. Maggie’s Plan is no exception, giving Gerwig the title role of
another self-absorbed Manhattanite desperately trying to exist in a Woody Allen
film.
Maggie (Gerwig)
actually has several different plans over the course of the film, each more
selfish than the last. When Maggie grows tired of waiting for the right guy to
come along, she impulsively decides to impregnate herself with the help of an
uninvolved friend from high school (Travis Fimmel). Shortly after making this
decision, Maggie falls for a married writer named John (Ethan Hawke). The story
then jumps forward several years to an unhappy Maggie attempting to play
housewife and mother to John’s two children, and one of her own, which very
obviously came from Maggie’s “plan,” despite the film treating this like a surprise
in the final moments.
Even worse than
Maggie’s willingness to destroy John’s marriage with likeminded literary
scholar, Georgette (Julianne Moore), is her indecisiveness. After a few years
having him as her own, Maggie comes up with another plan to reunite John and
Georgette so that she can have her freedom back. Technically, I suppose that
would make this film a screwball comedy, as the sub-genre was also referred to
as “comedy of remarriage.” But although the movie becomes about the reunion
between married couple, the banter of the dialogue never comes close to the
cleverness of the 1940s. Instead, this simply feels like watered down Woody
Allen: a bunch of narcissists cheating on each other until eventually ending
with a partner once the jazz soundtrack finally stops forcefully insisting that
the entire endeavor is lighthearted. If
you like Gerwig movies or the cynical style of Woody Allen romances, Maggie’s Plan may be your kind of movie,
however uninspired much of the script may be.
Some actors are
chameleons, disappearing into each role in such a way that we hardly recognize
them. Others play the same character every time, and we essentially know them
for being themselves. I don’t think I would recognize Gerwig if she weren’t
playing an idealistic selfish New Yorker. The fact that she has mostly worked
with Noah Baumbach since breaking up the director’s own marriage makes the role
of Maggie even closer to her personality than usual, even if this particular
film is directed by Rebecca Miller. Miller is daughter to famous playwright
Arthur Miller, but it is Woody Allen’s shadow she remains in with Maggie’s Plan. Moore is the one who comes off looking the
worst in Maggie’s Plan, because she
attempts to become a chameleon actress with painful results. The role of
Georgette is Danish, but Moore’s
accent ends up sounding like a bad caricature of a German. Gerwig’s approach to
play herself may be obnoxious to those who don’t necessarily like her
personality, but it doesn’t make her a bad actor, just one that I don’t
particularly enjoy because of the roles is drawn to.
The Blu-ray release
includes a Digital HD copy of the film, along with the special features
included on disc. There is a commentary track with Miller, along with a Q&A
from the Sundance Film Festival. There is also a making-of featurette and an
outtake reel.
Entertainment Value:
6/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 6/10
Historical
Significance: 4/10
Special Features: 5/10
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