‘Maggie Moore(s)’ Review: Jon Hamm And Tina Fey Reunite And Lift Murder Mystery/Romantic Drama – Tribeca Festival

It is always an occasion for celebration when Jon Hamm and Tina Fey are back together on screen — big or small — having shared credits on various 30 Rock and SNL episodes (and the upcoming film version of Fey’s Mean Girls). But their latest collaboration is a clear departure, as well as a rare chance to see Fey out of her comedic zone.

Directed by John Slattery, Hamm’s multi-Emmy-nominated Mad Men co-star, Maggie Moore(s), which world premiered Monday night as part of the Tribeca Festival Spotlight Narrative section, is on paper an extremely clever premise for a murder mystery. When one woman named Maggie Moore is found murdered, the man responsible for the hit job (who also happens to be her husband) stumbles on to yet another woman with the exact same name living just a few blocks away in the same small American town. His thinking is that if Maggie #2 also turns up dead it could throw off the investigation and put the focus on perhaps a case of mistaken identity in the murder of the first Maggie. Ingenious, right?

Enter police chief Jordan Sanders (Hamm) and his deputy Reddy (Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed), who find themselves trying to deal with double murders of women with the same exact name. Even Jessica Fletcher or Lt. Columbo would be intrigued by this mystery. Screenwriter Paul Bernbaum (the criminally underrated Hollywoodland), however, wasn’t interested in just a straight telling of this aspect, but more in exploring the lives, and tentative relationships, of some of the characters on the fringe of the main event.

That first and foremost means Jordan, now widowed for over a year and making tentative awkward attempts at another chance at love when he meets Rita Grace (Fey), neighbor of the first Maggie Moore and her husband Jay (Micah Stock). In a Rear Window-ish development, she sees and hears strange things going on at their house, plus some vivid arguments and weird behavior by Jay. She is happy to tell the chief what she knows after finding out about the tragic death of her friend Maggie. Very slowly a relationship develops for this divorcee and Jordan, and that makes for a generous subplot to which Slattery and his writer keep returning.

Solving the mystery and striking up a romance becomes a real balancing act in terms of tone, with the two story strands eventually colliding. Fortunately for Slattery he has Hamm and Fey in key roles and these pros know exactly how to make this work, even when at times the whole soufflé might fall.

Still this is the kind of modest endeavor with a script and fractured characters interesting enough to keep us engaged for 99 minutes, and also the kind of film Hollywood major studios used to do before tentpole superhero movies sent them to Premium VOD and streaming (Screen Media is the distributor and plans a limited theatrical and simultaneous PVOD release Friday).

Hamm has found some pretty nifty roles of late in this kind of character-driven if small movie, like the terrific Confess, Fletch and another movie that premiered at Tribeca last year, the weirdly offbeat Corner Office. He is an actor capable of anything, big screen or small (witness Top Gun: Maverick) and he has another role here that fits like a glove. He is well-matched btw with Mohammed, who in just a few scenes creates a deputy/friend who is fully dimensional. Fey doesn’t get to show her dramatic chops as often, but as in 2016’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot she proves she has the range here too, and her budding romance with Jordan is touching. They are the key reason to see Maggie Moore(s). As for the too-black comedic elements, I wish there was less of Stock’s murderous husband and his deaf hitman (played by Happy Anderson) which tend to be too over the top, throwing the tone off everytime we go back to them.

If the competing elements don’t totally come together here, Slattery, as he did with past directorial efforts particularly God’s Pocket, proves he is just as talented behind the screen as he is in front of it.

He also produced along with Vincent Garcia Newman, Dan Reardon, Santosh Govindaraju, Nancy Leopardi and Ross Kohn.

Title: Maggie Moore(s)
Festival: Tribeca (Spotlight Narrative)
Distributor: Screen Media
Director: John Slattery
Screenplay: Paul Bernbaum
Cast: Jon Hamm, Tina Fey, Micah Stock, Nick Mohammed, Happy Anderson, Mary Holland
Release date: June 16, 2023 (theaters and on-demand)
Rating: R
Running time: 1 hr 39 min