Maggie's Plan

Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke,

Julianne Moore

"Chapter Three: A Change of Heart" 

Maggie (Greta Gerwig) desperately wants to have a baby but since she is currently unattached, she develops a plan. She 'commissions' Guy, a former schoolmate to donate his sperm so she can self inseminate herself and raise the child on her own. But life has other plans when she meets John (Ethan Hawke), a married professor/lecturer of anthropology, they have an affair and she gets pregnant. 

Three married years later, John has basically turned into a good for nothing, wanna be novelist while Maggie does all the 'heavy lifting' so to speak. She is pretty convinced she is better off raising her adorable daughter Lily by herself so she hatches another plan. This one involves reuniting her husband John with his ex-wife Georgette (Julianne Moore) who is also from the academe so they can get back together. 

I know it sounds pretty complicated but believe me it isn't hard to follow. This sort of romantic comedy with a twisted love triangle angle unfolds with some laughs, a fair load of sarcasm, flawed yet endearing characters within a nicely conceived dialogue driven narrative.

Greta Gerwig, the "IT" girl of the mumblecore film movement is in her elements here as Maggie. Only a millennial would and could come up with such a plan to sustain her self interests for her own sweet convenience to thrive in life. This is sadly a recurring and for me an alarming trend among some if not most of today's youth. A generation raised in this age of social media, where selfish behavior (selfies) and a wrong sense of entitlement seems to be the common pattern.

She is ably supported by Ethan Hawke, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader and special mention goes to Julianne Moore whose portrayal of Georgette, the icy Danish ex-wife and an expert of ficto-anthropology was spot on. She was amusing and a delight to watch, complete with her exaggerated Danish accent.

By the way, for the uninitiated, Wikipedia describes the term mumblecore as: a sub genre of independent film characterized by naturalistic acting and dialogue (often improvised), low-budget film production, an emphasis on dialogue over plot, and a focus on the personal relationships of people in their 20s and 30s.

"Maggie's Plan" is an apt representation that mirrors the typical life of the millennials generation. I am still on the fence when it comes to this sort of attitude and behavioral patterns because there are certainly pros and cons but sometimes I do fear that the cons outweigh the positives and in my opinion this unfortunately doesn't bode well for the future of the human race.