MAGGIE’S PLAN

US, 2015, 97 minutes, Colour.
Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, Travis Fimmell.
Directed by Rebecca Miller.

Rebecca Miller (daughter of playwright Arthur Miller) has made only a few films over almost 20 years, including Personal Velocity, Jack and Rose, The Private Life Pippa Lee, a film every five years or so. Her films are particular explorations of female characters.

This is the case here with Maggie, a 30 something academic, strong-minded and strong-willed, though down on herself that she cannot stay in a relationship more than six months. She is also anxious to have a child and has picked out a past friend, Guy (Travis Fimmel), who loves mathematics but has developed a company making pickles!

By chance, checking on an overpayment at the University, she encounters John (Ethan Hawke) and later a chance meeting in the park. He is an expert ethnographer, is trying to write a novel, and asks Maggie to read chapters which she eagerly does.

John is married to another ethnographer, the Danish Georgette (Julianne Moore) and they have two children. The next plot development is not hard to work out, John leaving his wife and children, marrying Maggie and their having a baby.

That was the first part of Maggie’s plan but it did not go according to plan. Over, over the three years of their friendship and marriage, Maggie comes to realise that John is still dependent in many ways on Georgette, for her professional opinion, phoning her regularly and, of course, the shared upbringing of their children which Maggie also makes a positive contribution to.

This leads to a second stage of Maggie’s plan, coming to her mind after attending a reading by Georgette, liking her and suggesting to her, Georgette fairly willing, that Georgette and John get back together again. They control circumstances to get John to give a paper at a conference in Québec which Georgette is also attending.

Maggie has two friends from long since, Tony and Felicia, who are her confidantes and who give her advice – but, Tony unwittingly reveals Maggie’s plan which precipitates a crisis and the need for a resolution, for the relationship between Georgette and John and for Maggie herself to appreciate that she is a controller but that she does have a young child.

There is a moment at the very end of the which raises a question which does seem rather contrived.

In many films, Greta Gerwig has been a very idiosyncratic presence (Frances Ha, Lola Rerun, Mistress America). Here, she incorporates the eccentricities into a much more rounded and pleasing performance. Ethan Hawke is also very good, responding to a dramatic challenge as the often ineffectual John. It is strange to hear Julianne Moore speaking with and Danish inflected English accent.

Not a particularly profound experience, somewhat familiar, but effectively written and directed.

1. The title? Expectations? Romance and relationships? Difficulties? Something more?

2. The American city, life, homes, work, restaurants? Academia? The musical score?

3. The strong cast?

4. The introduction Maggie, the age, experience, relationships, the encounter with John, getting her payment, his conversation, meeting in the park, reading the chapters? The history
of the relationship, two self-images? The story of Georgette? Maggie’s plan, the sperm donation, the donor and relationship with him? A pregnancy, the birth of a daughter? Life, friends?

5. John, his age, in himself, his expertise, ethnography, his writings? His marriage, the tensions? His children? His writing the novel? His relationship with his wife, children, and routine scenes? The attraction to Maggie, the chapters, his writing, the affair, marriage?

6. Maggie and her friends, discussions about pregnancy, the donor, mathematics, the discussions, sperm, the occasions for the sperm? His profession, making pickles? Not being the father?

7. Married life, the effect on Maggie, having the child? The details? The tensions, John, writing, not finishing the novel? A sensitivity to his responses? His continually being on the phone with his ex-wife?

8. Georgette, in itself, European background, expert in ethnography, her work? Family, her being hurt, agreeing to the divorce?

9. Maggie, going to Georgette’s reading, meeting her, the bond, their liking each other?

10. The friends, in themselves, talk, long friendship, offering advice? Sounding boards?

11. The next phase of the plan, the conference, inviting John to go, Georgette colluding, being there?

12. Conference itself, John and his decision to go, discussions with Maggie, meeting the students, affirmation, talk, Georgette present? The discussions, spending the night together, the reactions?

13. The picture of the children, the care from their parents, Maggie and her concern, the daughter and her sophistication, the boy? Maggie continually helping?

14. John, the return from the conference, talk, indecisive?

15. Georgette, discussions with John, the novel, a realistic approach, getting the manuscript, reading it, burning it and returning the ashes to John?

16. There finishing together, love, dependents and support?

17. Maggie and her new life?