Watching "Maggie's Plan" a few thoughts went through my mind starting with the role of Maggie was begging for a 25 year old Meg Ryan and Greta Gerwig is not her. Meryl Streep better watch out if Julianne Moore decides to give her a run for believable accents and Moore should insist that Malgopsia Turzanskanever be the costume designer on any of her future movies.

Rebecca Miller, screenwriter and director of "Maggie's Plan", aims partially at being a Hollywood old screwball comedy but doesn't have the pace to succeed. She also tries to bring it into the modern world with Maggie (Gerwig) deciding to be a single mother and eventually picks Guy (Travis Fimmel), a pickleartisian, to donate his sperm, (Why is hard to understand!) and even though he is willing to do it the old way she sends him to the bathroom. On that day she also starts an affair with married to Georgette (Julianne Moore) John (EthanHawke) an archaeologist who writes books and lectures but is in the shadow of his wife's accomplishment as a Columbia professor.

All of a sudden we see Maggie with her daughter a couple of years later, married to John, being involved with his and Georgette's children and falling out of love with John. Her plan is to reunite Georgette and John. In the middle of the movie Miller tries to alternate between an old fashioned romantic comedy, a screwball comedy, a farce and sentimentality, failing at all.

Moore and Hawke are excellent in roles that are more complex than they seem to be while Mina Sundwall, as their daughter, brings gravitas  to her role when needed while Jackson Frazer, as her younger brother, is a blond hair impish boy. Bill Hader as an old friend and short love interest of Maggie's when they were in school is good showing he cares for her expressing anger at how she tries to control her and everyone she becomes involved with.

The scenes between Gerwig and Ida Rohaytn, playing her daughter Lily, are delightful adding a lot of charm to the film but aside from that, sorry, Meg Ryan was missed by me. Maya Rudolph, as Hader's wife and Gerwig's friend, once again fails to impress me.

"Maggie's Plan" is less than Rebecca Miller seemed to be aiming for but for 98 minutes it took me away from what was going on in the world outside of movies.

PS As an aside, I never heard, or maybe just wasn't aware of, an archaeologistbook writer and lecturer until I met Allen's friend who is a  successfularchaeologist book writer and lecturer!!

Movie trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrYPRiSk3Fc