Ex Files, Part II: Simple Twist of Fate

MAGGIE'S PLAN (C+) -  Greta Gerwig does her flighty-chick thing, Ethan Hawke reels off his patented earnest middle-aged-guy shtick, and Julianne Moore attempts a crazy accent (cartoon Danish? Baba Wawa?) -- and none of it can save Rebecca Miller's drab, sluggish comic drama about a woman who wants, not to have it all, but to put everyone around her in their place.

Gerwig plays Maggie, a rather ordinary academic adviser who wants to have a baby, so she convinces an old schoolmate she barely knows -- quirky urban pickle "entrepreneur" Guy (Aussie Travis Fimmel) -- to contribute his sperm, no strings attached. Just as she's basting her private parts, there's a knock on the door from her married colleague John (Hawke), who has come to profess his love to her. Maggie has been reading a draft of his novel, keeping him company and hearing him bitch about his Nazi of a wife, Georgette (Moore), and it turns out she too is smitten with this older Linklaterian manchild and father of two.

Miller -- the deliberate director, known for "Personal Velocity" and "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" -- has a clean style with her sly scripts. With three distinct acts, she struggles with the set-up surrounding these somewhat cliched Brooklynites, and then she falls down a hole during the middle third, as John and Maggie settle into an ossified domesticity with their perfect little love child. We're told this is a wrenching transition for the adults and kids, but it never feels like anything important is at stake. I was tempted to walk out halfway through.

The "plan" that finally gets hatched here involves Maggie finding a way to dump John back on his ex. It's a great idea (credited to newcomer Karen Rinaldi, who deserved a better result), but it's executed as limply as a late-period Woody Allen fiasco. Everything is twee and mannered -- more movie-ish than real. Maggie's love child is a perfect angel; Gerwig's layered outfits are quaintly retro; New York's streets shimmer; the dialogue snaps just so.

Miller manages some truly funny moments, but they are few and far between. Moore's Georgette rides a roller-coaster from ridiculous to touching to mawkish. She does reel off a few of the best lines. Remarking on her husband's niche academic specialty she compliments him, straight-faced: "No one unpacks commodity fetishism like you." A scene of John and Georgette holed up at a snow-bound cabin in Quebec, drinking and dancing to a French-accented folkie couple's version of Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark," provides some authentic emotion.

But Miller can't help herself here, fussing too much over the details. Her characters are walking tropes: Maggie is manic and controlling of everyone; John is a success in academia but a frustrated novelist; Georgette is a brilliant, egomaniacal harpy who, in the end, can't function without some doofus to keep her company.

The twist ending is telegraphed from the first act, although Gerwig sells it beautifully. She's still an amazing physical comedian and a natural improvisor (just watch her wince after sipping a cup of coffee with butter in it). But by that final scene here, you want to take her aside and assure her that she's grown out of her "Frances Ha" eccentric-gal phase and that this Hollywood slow-track just isn't for her. Everyone involved in this project simply needs to move on.

BONUS TRACK
Our title track:


Bob Dylan - Simple Twist of Fate (1975) by alexnesic66