Maggie’s Plan (15)

four stars

Dir: Rebecca Miller

With: Greta Gerwig, Julianne Moore

Runtime: 99 minutes

GRETA Gerwig (Frances Ha) plays the Maggie of the title, whose plan is to get pregnant via a sperm donor. Just when all the arrangements have been made, along comes a man (Ethan Hawke) she wants to have a baby with the old fashioned way. Just one problem - daddy-to-be is married already, to a brilliant, mercurial academic (Julianne Moore) who won’t give him up so easily. Directed by Rebecca Miller (daughter of Arthur, if you are interested), Maggie’s Plan is a comedy drama of Brooklyn manners you will either find delightful (if you enjoy gabby pictures and Gerwig) or monstrously irritating. Four stars gives my position away.

The Mafia Kills Only in Summer (15)

three stars

Dir: Pierfrancesco Diliberto

With: Cristiana Capotondi, Alex Bisconti

Runtime: 90 minutes

Set in Palermo “where the mafia influences everyone’s lives”, Pierfrancesco Diliberto’s coming of age picture is a light, witty yet at the same time deadly serious affair. It is at heart the story of Flora and Arturo, childhood sweethearts growing up in the Andreotti years, when mafia violence claimed the lives of the many brave Italians who dared to take them on. Spanning 20 years, Diliberto’s picture has a tough road to walk, being resolutely sunny on one side and decidedly bleak on the other, but it rarely puts a foot wrong, largely due to the performance of Alex Bisconti as Arturo as a bambino.