A trailer has been released for writer-director Rebecca Miller’s “Maggie’s Plan.” Greta Gerwig’s name is now pretty much synonymous with oddball comedies, but she continuously offers fresh take on characters who just can’t seem to get it right. Here, she plays Maggie, who ends up romantically entangled with John (Ethan Hawke), a hotshot professor and wannabe writer who feels overshadowed by his more successful academic wife (Julianne Moore).
When a friend asks Maggie about John’s wife, she naively answers, “Their marriage fell apart and now he’s trapped in it.” That’s the story he’s telling his considerably younger mistress, anyway.
When Maggie finally gets the chance to make a life with John, she discovers that he’s not quite the man, and romantic partner, she imagined him to be. “I’m terrified that I’m falling out of love with him,” she admits. So Maggie constructs a plan to reunite him with his ex-wife.
“Maggie’s Plan” premiered at TIFF last September to solid reviews. Cameron Bailey, the festival’s Artistic Director, told Women and Hollywood that the film’s neurotic characters and New York setting would inevitably draw comparisons to “Woody Allen territory and Noah Baumbach territory” (Baumbach and Gerwig have, perhaps not coincidentally, collaborated multiple times and have been dating for quite awhile). But Miller is able to bring something different to the table, especially in her portrayal of Hawke’s character. Bailey emphasized that Hawke isn’t “let off the hook” for his egomania and philandering.
Miller’s previous credits include 2009’s “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” and 2005’s “The Ballad of Jack and Rose.”
“Maggie’s Plan” opens in theaters May 20. Check out a poster below and trailer for the film over at Entertainment Weekly.
