Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Maggie's Plan" is an American 95-minute movie from this year and the writer and director is filmmaker and actress Rebecca Miller who has directed several Hollywood stars in the last 10 years, such as Daniel Day-Lewis. It's been six years since her last project behind the camera though (and even much more in front of the camera), so a great deal of curiosity may have sparkled about her project here. The title character is played by Greta Gerwig. I personally really like her as an actress, even if I must say her characters are all somewhat similar from what I have seen so far: goofy, childish, positive, sparkling, clumsy personalities like the one in "Frances Ha" as well. And another parallel to that film is that, in the end it is all about friendship and love between friends, not between partners for her character. The male lead is played by Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke, who plays a man that enters Gerwig's character's life and is bound to stay apparently. Or is he really? And finally, there is Oscar winner Julianne Moore, who was the best thing about this film in my opinion and gives the only somewhat memorable performances as the wife left by Hawke's character.All in all, I would say that this was an entertaining 1.5 hours, but sadly there is a "but". Actually there are several "buts". One would be the comedy aspects. I think they felt cringeworthy at times and included for the sake of taking a bit away from the dramatic gravity. This film is at its best when it is a relationship drama. No denying. Also it is a bit of a predictable movie. The way Moore's character is described early on is in a really negative way, but the longer the film goes, the more we are supposed to like her, which is of course an indicator of what is going to happen at the end to Hawke's character and they needed to depict Moore this way, so the audience will not be disappointed or even angry that the (as always) likable Gerwig character is not the one who gets him. But she gets another guy apparently, one who maybe even really loves her more and who turns out to be the father of her child as we find out at the very end. Yeah, this was a bit too much for sure in terms of pleasing the audience with a happy ending. At least it was somewhat surprising as (despite the earlier ice skating reference) I did not see it coming. But it's kinda absurd too that she never considered the possibility that Hawke's character is not the dad. Or that he considered it. She gets the guy who is a bit of a likable idiot and fool like herself eventually.The three main actors definitely elevate the material here. I had some struggles with the script throughout the film I must say. One would be that Hawke's character is depicted so unhappy with his marriage that you would think he will really only do the most necessary things because of the children, but on the contrary: He keeps bonding with his ex-wife, even in his new marriage. This came out of nowhere given the way the relationship was elaborated on previously. Then the two are married so fast. Gerwig's character says that she cannot stay together with a guy for longer than six months, but then she marries right away? This also came out of nowhere. There are more plot developments that did not make sense in the grand scheme of things I have to say, but overall thanks to the acting mostly I guess and some of the better script moments, this was an enjoyable watch, even if it was far from achieving the quality that it could have achieved. I recommend the watch. But not too enthusiastically. Certainly worth checking out for people like myself who like Gerwig, Hawke and Moore.
