Good pieces just don't add up
"Maggie Moore(s)" is one of those movies where you sit down trying to join the dots to add up all the positives you have on screen into the cohesive whole the movie should have been. It's like a jigsaw puzzle with beautiful pieces that don't quite fit together.
The movie is so much like something the Coen brothers would have made that you realise they also should have made it. That really could have worked. It's set in a small town in which everyone has a distinct personality you can immediately make out, and they're all played by great character actors. It's mostly like "Fargo" out of all their movies, though you can also see a bit of "The Man Who Wasn't There". We have a desperate, pathetic, bumbling man whose transgression onto the wrong side of the law spirals totally out of control and leads to bloodshed.
Jon Hamm plays the foil for the imbecile, I guess, another small town guy who is also in romantic straits, having just lost his wife, but he shows how you can handle that without going off the deep end. It reminded me of that last scene in "Fargo" where Margie is back home with her husband, and all the carnage is over, and you're just thinking, these are good people, and thank god for that.
"Maggie Moore(s)" just left me wondering why a movie with so many decent aspects didn't deliver. The ending, for my last example, feels totally rushed and even bungled. It keeps you waiting for some kind of surprise so long that when it comes it's too late and it just felt like a cop-out. And I also didn't even really care.
It's a shame, I liked Jon Hamm in his role, and Tina Fey could have been good but their relationship was undercooked so it just felt annoying. Micah Stock was also ideally cast as the bumbling loser, and I liked Nick Mohammed as the deputy. Happy Anderson as the supposedly Mute mountain-man (and man-mountain) killer seemed like a character the Coen brothers just hadn't used yet.
But it just doesn't come together, and the ending is so slapdash it almost felt like a spit in the face.
The movie is so much like something the Coen brothers would have made that you realise they also should have made it. That really could have worked. It's set in a small town in which everyone has a distinct personality you can immediately make out, and they're all played by great character actors. It's mostly like "Fargo" out of all their movies, though you can also see a bit of "The Man Who Wasn't There". We have a desperate, pathetic, bumbling man whose transgression onto the wrong side of the law spirals totally out of control and leads to bloodshed.
Jon Hamm plays the foil for the imbecile, I guess, another small town guy who is also in romantic straits, having just lost his wife, but he shows how you can handle that without going off the deep end. It reminded me of that last scene in "Fargo" where Margie is back home with her husband, and all the carnage is over, and you're just thinking, these are good people, and thank god for that.
"Maggie Moore(s)" just left me wondering why a movie with so many decent aspects didn't deliver. The ending, for my last example, feels totally rushed and even bungled. It keeps you waiting for some kind of surprise so long that when it comes it's too late and it just felt like a cop-out. And I also didn't even really care.
It's a shame, I liked Jon Hamm in his role, and Tina Fey could have been good but their relationship was undercooked so it just felt annoying. Micah Stock was also ideally cast as the bumbling loser, and I liked Nick Mohammed as the deputy. Happy Anderson as the supposedly Mute mountain-man (and man-mountain) killer seemed like a character the Coen brothers just hadn't used yet.
But it just doesn't come together, and the ending is so slapdash it almost felt like a spit in the face.
- Groverdox
- Feb 3, 2024