Maggie's Plan | Film review - A metropolitan comedy of manners

There’s definitely a touch of Woody Allen in Maggie's Plan, a beguiling comedy of manners about New York intellectuals who exchange highbrow banter while getting into romantic scrapes.

Greta Gerwig is the planner of the title, a broody singleton whose project to become pregnant by sperm donor gets sidetracked when she falls in love with Ethan Hawke’s would-be novelist John. He’s an anthropology professor (a ‘ficto-critical anthropologist’, no less), unhappily married to fellow academic Georgette, a scarily intense Danish scholar played with deadpan hilarity by Julianne Moore.

The love triangle that ensues takes a number of surprising turns, nimbly handled by writer-director Rebecca Miller, as Maggie’s well-intentioned schemes go askew.

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.