Get ready to feel very mad at a fictional character for not acting rationally in a way that would tidily resolve the plot of a film. In Maggie’s Plan, Greta Gerwig falls for a married man (Ethan Hawke), stays with him as he leaves his wife (Julianne Moore), decides she doesn’t love him anymore, and, instead of straightforwardly terminating their relationship, launches a convoluted scheme to push him back toward his ex. Maya Rudolph and Bill Hader play you, the nice, reasonable person shouting, “Just break up with him like any normal human being!†Gerwig plays a critical theorist, Hawke is a ficto-critical anthropology professor, and Moore is an academic, but it looks like they’re all students in the same subject: love.
