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As evidenced in Frances Ha and Mistress America, Greta Gerwig's go-to acting move is convincing us of her character's unbearable superficiality before letting the humanity surface.
Playing a chronically single woman who falls for a wannabe novelist, she pulls off a similar feat in Maggie's Plan with the help of a terrifically severe performance from Julianne Moore as the novelist's wife.
From writer-director Rebecca Miller, the film's ambience is the heir to '70s Woody Allen, right down to the gypsy jazz. It mocks and meditates on a New York intellectual class replete with NPR mugs, The Paris Review, Zizek, the New School and multidisciplinary degrees.
The hitch in Maggie's Plan is Maggie's plan. As Gerwig's character plays matchmaker and plot-hatcher, the tonally confused movie tees up a screwball comedy that's best moments are unexpected drama and character study.
Rated R.
Critic's Grade: B
Willamette Week