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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Applications open for 'Makers' fair at ScienceWorks ... Sanders endorses Clinton, saying he will do 'everything I can' to defeat Trump ... Runner breaks record for Mt. Shasta ascent ... Applications open for 'Makers' fair at ScienceWorks ... Sanders endorses Clinton, saying he will do 'everything I can' to defeat Trump ... Runner breaks record for Mt. Shasta ascent ... MOVIE REVIEW 'Maggie's Plan' is a tilted, quirky love triangle Comment By Chris Honoré for Revels DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Jun. 23, 2016 at 12:01 AM By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Jun. 23, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News Maggie’s Plan ; 98min; Rated R “Maggie’s Plan” is a film that relies on engaging, spot-on dialogue, lots of it. Writer/director Rebecca Miller has a remarkably well-tuned ear for conversation, especially that which is embedded in New York academia, inserting such memorable phrases as, “Nobody unpacks commodity fetishism like you do.” And the film seriously suggests that there is an academic niche known as “ficto-critical anthropology.” Really? In contrast to the esoteric pursuit of post-structural posturing is the guileless, winsome, early 30s Maggie (Gretta Gerwig), a New School of Social Research academic administrator. She decides that while she can’t seem to sustain a relationship with a man for longer than six months, she wants to be a mother and is prepared to go it alone. She just needs a sperm donor and asks an old college friend, Guy (Travis Finnel), an artisanal pickle entrepreneur and a gifted mathematician. He agrees and they arrange a delivery time. Meanwhile she meets John (Ethan Hawke), a married academic (he’s the ficto-anthropologist) and a budding novelist. He asks Maggie if she would mind reading the first chapters of his novel, something his wife, Georgette (Julianne Moore), a chilly, successful professor at Columbia, has little interest in doing. They do have two children, but John is perpetually discontent and feels neglected by Georgette. His solipsistic narcissism — nicely disguised behind his charm and impulse to write and create — is only gradually revealed as the narrative evolves. And so begins a satirical, funny, romantic comedy that results in a tilted, quirky triangle: John leaves Georgette for Maggie, who finally has the baby she wanted. Three years pass. John is still writing his original novel, Maggie is working, raising their daughter, and playing backstop for his two kids. Suddenly, she begins to wonder if perhaps John was a mistake and thus arrives the essence of “Maggie’s Plan”: She settles on a scheme to send the purloined John back to Georgette. Right child, wrong guy, she’s concluded. It’s Shakespearean in a kind of screwy, comedic way. John observes at one point that in every relationship one person is the gardener and the other the rose. For a time, he got to be the rose while Maggie grows emotionally tired of weeding the garden. “Maggie’s Plan” is a delightful film, charming and idiosyncratic. It also has a superb ensemble cast with Bill Harder and Maya Rudolph portraying a New York married couple with compelling exchanges, making excellent use of every moment they are on screen. Gerwig is perfectly cast. She is the ideal third corner of an endlessly interesting triangle, the quintessential New York millennial. And, of course, when it comes to love and initial passion, well the best laid plans, so to speak, ultimately end in a series of unintended consequences, no matter how urbane those involved may be. At no time does writer/director Miller (daughter of Arthur Miller), to her credit, try to explain in any kind of esoteric jargon exactly what “ficto-critical anthropology” is. Fetishes, neuroses and dysfunction unpacked? Almost certainly. In a nice way. By Chris Honoré for Revels DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Jun. 23, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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