Maggie's Plan
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: May 20, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
33
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The Film StageDan MeccaJun 2, 2016
Miller’s New York, full of academics who still have the capacity to act like children, isn’t exactly new, but plenty fascinating. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJun 8, 2016
Maggie’s Plan is an ensemble piece, with Maya Rudolph, Travis Fimmel, and a magic, romantic New York rounding out the cast. They’re all great, but it’s Gerwig who’s just so damn gosh-wow. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldJun 9, 2016
It’s a sweet, faintly screwball, faintly Shakespearean look at love, families and what happens when a well-made plan goes just a bit awry. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerJun 9, 2016
Miller’s characters are complete, singular people, and her take is thoroughly female. She subverts the genre, and wakes it up. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 29, 2016
It’s a fine brew, equal parts cynical and whimsical, dark and sunny. It’s fairly slight but nearly great. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 19, 2016
Without pushing or showing off, Miller creates a breezy comedy that pulls you up short. Buoyed by faultless actors who mesh beautifully, Maggie's Plan tickles you with laughs that can — suddenly or even days later — choke you up with emotion. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnSep 17, 2015
Miller applies Gerwig to the center of a busy story with simple themes, but it glides along so effortlessly that its reductive qualities barely register. The filmmaker's exceedingly smart screenplay is the real plan, and Gerwig's performance puts it into action. Read full review
83
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 17, 2015
Witty, observational, and hilarious, Maggie’s Plan is the kind of richly complex dramedy that proves to be the rare picture that serves both halves of that genre description fully, equally, and satisfyingly. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJul 14, 2016
Don’t underestimate the knitwear in Maggie’s Plan. This comedy from Rebecca Miller says more about the human condition through its cardigans than most films this summer have managed in their scripts. Read full review
80
CineVueTom DugginsJul 14, 2016
Maggie's Plan is over-educated satirical skewering at its finest - to be enjoyed at leisure, between symposia perhaps, or other perambulatory Manhattan-style discussions of crypto-narratives in the modern family unit. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeJul 4, 2016
Intelligent and screwball-funny with clever and complicated female characters. Read full review
80
EmpireJimi FamurewaJun 20, 2016
A perfectly cast comedy of manners that couches complex emotional questions in joyous farce and continues Gerwig’s reign as the undisputed Queen Of Quirk. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 19, 2016
Ms. Miller’s choices are hard to argue with. She steers gracefully through a zigzagging plot, slowing down for quiet, contemplative stretches and pausing for jokes that are irrelevant but irresistible. She finds a tricky balance of farce, satire and emotional sincerity, a way of treating people as ridiculous without denying them empathy. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 19, 2016
Ms. Miller proves to be an original, setting her comic characters in motion like mini-planets that spin in eccentric but overlapping orbits. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshMay 19, 2016
The writing crackles, and Miller doesn’t waste time getting right at the meat of the story. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeSep 17, 2015
The picture is one part vintage Woody Allen, a few parts Screwball-era comedy of remarriage, and a vigorous shake of Gerwig herself, without whose particular spirit — "so pure," as an admirer puts it here, and "a little stupid" — this scenario might have trouble getting off the ground. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 17, 2015
All three leads get stronger as the movie goes along, in part because Miller’s full intention isn’t clear until about halfway through. These characters are foolish without being idiots, which produces a more sophisticated type of comedy. Read full review
80
VarietyDennis HarveySep 17, 2015
Miller is greatly helped by all her major collaborators here. Read full review
80
The GuardianNigel M SmithSep 17, 2015
It’s unpredictable and a bit of a mess. And that’s what makes Maggie’s Plan such a delight. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonJun 9, 2016
A sophisticated comedy about New Yorkers who might easily be mistaken for characters in a Woody Allen movie. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 9, 2016
The Oscar winning Moore slings just enough of an accent for her lines to be funny. Her top-knot hairstyle says everything about the character we need to know — frosty, severe. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 2, 2016
This is the rare occasion when one of these brittle, neurotic social comedies serves as the vehicle for a woman’s sensibility rather than a man’s. In the process, Miller quietly but forcefully reinvents an entire movie genre. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 26, 2016
There’s also a lightness in the tone that yet allows for real emotion and impressive performances. Maggie’s Plan doesn’t quite transcend the limits of the romantic comedy genre, but it pushes at them. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 26, 2016
Maggie’s Plan exerts unmistakable charm, and once it hits its stride and the titular scheme kicks into gear, the movie takes on its own weird, giddy rhythms and really soars. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattMay 25, 2016
Sometimes that tips too far into silliness (the final scene, especially, works strenuously towards an end-cute); still, its mildly subversive rom-com sensibilities are just sour-sweet enough to pull it off. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 20, 2016
Writer-director Rebecca Miller never wrests her movie free of its associations with the films of Woody Allen and Noah Baumbach, and some of it plays like a generic indie film rom-com. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartMay 19, 2016
Maggie’s Plan isn’t perfect — the threads of its plot are sometimes a little too loosely knit — but Miller’s clearly got her finger on the pulse of the New York intellectual comedy. Read full review
75
TheWrapSam AdamsMay 18, 2016
Like any artist, Miller has the right to reinvent herself, but we don’t need one more director of winsome, Sundance-ready rom-coms. That said, as winsome, Sundance-ready rom-coms go, Maggie’s Plan is a pretty winning one. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 21, 2016
Maggie’s Plan doesn’t quite gel, but it’s very enjoyable, and it has a solid emotional core. Read full review
70
Village VoiceApril WolfeMay 18, 2016
Maggie's Plan is a fun light comedy with memorable characters, from a writer-director who lives up to her lineage (Arthur Miller's her dad), but it relies heavily on Gerwig's predictable charm and sometimes seems more Woody Allen than Rebecca Miller. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJun 9, 2016
Gerwig and Hawke are outstanding reasons to see this movie, but your patience — just like Maggie’s — will be tested before it’s over. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireMay 20, 2016
Maggie’s Plan almost isn’t screwball enough. The characters must undergo some introspection, as well, and striking a balance between those two dynamics proves challenging. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJake ColeOct 5, 2015
As a writer and director, Rebecca Miller is at her best when she finds the shared wavelengths of her lead cast's divergent styles. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 18, 2016
A comedy that proves that an appealing cast (Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore) and a wonderful premise are no guarantee of big laughs. Read full review
50
ConsequenceNina CorcoranMay 18, 2016
The script, although endearing, is too poorly edited to lift its quirks to the next level, no matter how many stars show up for roll call. Read full review
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