Maggie Marvel is a fun indie comedy about a female assassin who is also a single mom. In the course of the story she must balance both of these lives, for the sake of her daughter...but there's also a plot line about her mobster colleague, Bobby Shay, who hires Maggie for a job so he can be with a fellow assassin named Dixie, which turns Dixie into Maggie's rival...and there's also a plot line about Maggie's estranged father Dutch, who's also the criminal kingpin...which leads into another plot line involving a ditzy actress who is hired to fool Dutch...plus a subplot in the middle involving a bank heist and a German princess...and here's where the film's fatal flaw turns up.
The plot of the film is unnecessarily convoluted and I found myself confused as to what the story was ultimately about. Maggie is a likable heroine, but the story went all over the place and I didn't feel like she was given enough reason to experience the character arc that she does. In fact, I would say the Bobby Shay character feels like the film's protagonist at times.
And then there's the problem of the climax: there simply isn't one. Throughout the film, Cindy, the ditzy actress, is studying Bobby and eventually gets hired to play Maggie in order to fool Dutch. I thought it was really fun how this subplot was woven into the main narrative. But then the movie completely drops the Dutch plot line and turns Cindy into the villain of the story! This feels very messy and artificial; Cindy is a comedic side-character, not the antagonist of the film. If anything, I expected a final showdown between Maggie and Dixie, but their rivalry plot line is ALSO completely dropped!
Despite all this, I do enjoy the film's premise and the humor is great. I actually felt they should have made the humor even darker and just made it a full-out comedy. Instead it feels halfway between comedy and drama. The acting is VERY good. Both Selena Beretta and Dan Brennan have great screen presence and do a fantastic job carrying every scene they're in. Diane & Sabrina Brennan are also wonderful. My favorite is Dasha Kittredge as Cindy, who has great comedic timing.
All in all, this is a film worth seeing, as it is a truly refreshing indie comedy with a lot of energy in every shot. With a little more work on the script, it could have been great, but the result will have you chuckling.
The plot of the film is unnecessarily convoluted and I found myself confused as to what the story was ultimately about. Maggie is a likable heroine, but the story went all over the place and I didn't feel like she was given enough reason to experience the character arc that she does. In fact, I would say the Bobby Shay character feels like the film's protagonist at times.
And then there's the problem of the climax: there simply isn't one. Throughout the film, Cindy, the ditzy actress, is studying Bobby and eventually gets hired to play Maggie in order to fool Dutch. I thought it was really fun how this subplot was woven into the main narrative. But then the movie completely drops the Dutch plot line and turns Cindy into the villain of the story! This feels very messy and artificial; Cindy is a comedic side-character, not the antagonist of the film. If anything, I expected a final showdown between Maggie and Dixie, but their rivalry plot line is ALSO completely dropped!
Despite all this, I do enjoy the film's premise and the humor is great. I actually felt they should have made the humor even darker and just made it a full-out comedy. Instead it feels halfway between comedy and drama. The acting is VERY good. Both Selena Beretta and Dan Brennan have great screen presence and do a fantastic job carrying every scene they're in. Diane & Sabrina Brennan are also wonderful. My favorite is Dasha Kittredge as Cindy, who has great comedic timing.
All in all, this is a film worth seeing, as it is a truly refreshing indie comedy with a lot of energy in every shot. With a little more work on the script, it could have been great, but the result will have you chuckling.
