I am a very traditional man...at least when it comes to love and marriage (in other ways I am pretty strange...but I won't get into this here). I have been married 30 years and wouldn't have it any other way. I mention this because this definitely impacts how I enjoyed "Maggie's Plan". Since I strongly value marriage and commitment, I cannot relate to Maggie and her views on relationships, pregnancy and marriage. This isn't so much a criticism but stating that your own moral values can't help but impact on what you think of the film. While it's eventual message does, in a round about way, reinforces marriage and commitment...it sure does it in a very unconventional manner!

When the film begins, Maggie (Greta Gertwig) is contemplating inseminating herself at home. After all, she wants a kid and sees little need for a man. However, she meets a frustrated professor/writer (Ethan Hawke) and very, very quickly they throw caution to the wind and being having sex. Unfortunately, he is still married to Georgette (Julianne Moore).

The film jumps ahead three years. Maggie is now married to the writer/professor and their marriage is only okay. She realizes it was a mistake to marry him (after all, she reasons, she just should have had an affair with him) and her plan is to try to get him back to his old wife.

I think this film is supposed to be a comedy...but I am not sure. I do know that the film seemed incredibly cavalier about sex and marriage...such that I certainly didn't see it as a romance. In fact, I am not exactly sure what type of film it was supposed to be. And, speaking of confusion, I sure felt confused about Julianne Moore's character. Her accent and style seemed like a combination of an Eastern European dominatrix combined with a college professor. Strange to say the least.

Overall, it's a film that held no interest to me. I didn't like or respect the characters nor did it hold my interest.

"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.

Greta Gerwig as "Maggie" (an independent woman) bakes up a plan to become a single mother and in the process 'the plan' works but then backfires and puts her into a situation 'the plan' did not include - marriage.

Gerwig gives a charming performance as Maggie steering a course through a relationship with a overly analytical writer once divorced husband, raising her three year old child, working her job as an instructor in a local college, and realizing her husband is still in love with his first wife! Maggie is in a pickle so she devises another plan!

The setting is the New York City intellectual society living in row houses and meeting in cafe's to socialize. The cast includes Bill Hader, Ethan Hawke, Maya Rudolph, Julianne Moore, Wallace Shawn. This is a simple 'slice of life' type story about modern people looking for and finding happiness and direction in their life. It's probably a film more appreciated by a viewer that likes a romantic flavor in a story that looks into the feelings and emotion in the human spirit.

This is a cheerful light story that includes just a touch of sorrow mixed into a picture of mostly happy people getting on with life. And don't forget the pickles!