Movie Review: Maggie’s Plan (2016)

Since it’s valentine’s day, I thought I’d watch a romance movie. So here we go.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Maggie’s Plan”.

Maggie (Greta Gerwig) has a plan to get impregnated, but without getting married, and raising the child on her own. But her plan and life gets a bit messier when she gets romantically involved with a married man (Ethan Hawke). So we follow Maggie through the ups and downs that come from this situation so now we have our romantic dramedy plot. And is it any good? For the most part, sure. It has some interesting ideas, and I was somewhat invested throughout the entirety of it. But I was also slightly bored. It was interesting enough to continue following through the entire runtime (a little over 90 minutes), but I somehow found myself a little bored by it all. It’s quite the enigma. So I guess it was… fine.

The characters in this are pretty interesting. Greta Gerwig plays Maggie, the titular lady whose plan gets a bit fucked. She’s a very kind and intelligent young woman with a lot on her mind, and it’s interesting to see her characteristics tested throughout everything that happens. And Gerwig gives a great performance. Ethan Hawke plays John, the married man that Maggie gets romantically engaged with. He’s an author and college professor with a lot on his plate. And he’s generally an interesting individual. And Hawke is great in the role. Then we have Julianne Moore as John’s wife Georgette. I’m not gonna say too much about her as she’s best experienced, but she’s quite a unique character. And Moore is really good in the role. Then we have Travis Fimmel as a guy named Guy (yes, really), and he’s the guy that Maggie more or less chose as donor for her pre-conundrum baby. And he’s a sweet guy with understandable ambitions. And Fimmel is good in the role. Then we have Bill Hader and Maya Rudolph as Tony and Felicia, two of Maggie’s closest friends. I’m lumping them both together since they kind of serve the same purpose, which is to deliver truth bombs to Maggie while also being a bit self-deprecating, which leads to a good amount of funny humor. And Hader & Rudolph and really good in the roles. It’s a well acted movie.

The score for the movie was composed by Michael Rohatyn and it was good. It’s a pretty quirky and fun score with tracks that fit pretty well within some of the quirky romantic comedy scenes. At times it isn’t a perfect fit, but for the most part it works. There’s also a whole bunch of licensed tracks used throughout, and they work pretty well in their respective scenes.

This movie was written and directed by Rebecca Miller and I think she did a good job. Her direction here is competent, even though it doesn’t do anything unique with it. It looks pretty good, but never really stands out in direction. But it’s still good enough to get the viewer (me) a bit more invested in what’s going on.

This movie has gotten some mixed reception. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 86% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 76/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,2/10.

“Maggie’s Plan” has a lot of good things going for it, though it has flaws. It has a fine plot, good characters, great performances, good music, and pretty good directing. As previously mentioned, the plot here is a bit of an enigma, somehow being both boring and interesting at the same time. And some of the music doesn’t quite fit perfectly. Time for my final score.  *Ahem*. My final score for “Maggie’s Plan” is a 7,77/10. So while flawed, I’d say that it’s definitely worth a rental.

My review of “Maggie’s Plan” is now completed.

Happy valentine’s day or something.