The preconception with comedies is that you expect to laugh and while there is plenty of amusing moments throughout ‘Maggie’ the majority of the time, at least past the initial plot point, confusion sets in as to what is actually going on and it becomes more difficult to just accept what is happening. From sex in the X-ray room to catfish predicting earthquakes to sink holes and breakups, this comedy really does cover a lot of weird and not always wonderful moments.
After believing that she and her boyfriend are the ones caught in the X-Ray room, Yeo, a nurse at a private hospital goes through a series of odd events. From helping a doctor to try and trust people again after everyone calls in sick to work, to her lazy boyfriend who finally getting a job filling the sink holes appearing around the city and with her relationship itself after his ex gives her some quite disturbing information. This is all narrated by the Maggie of the title, a catfish that sits in the hospital.
The story and characters literally go all over the place in the film making difficult to follow or even care what is happening to the characters. The bizarre nature is numerous to a point but the film starts down a more serious tone that feels out of place and problematic. Yeo and Sung-won morph into being the central characters taking over from the possibly more fascinating hospital and its patients. The decent into more serious relationship drama makes the film loose whatever random momentum it had at the start.
To say ‘Maggie’ is whimsical is an understatement, at least by typical comedic standards. But the most interesting angle played out is in the narrator, Maggie herself, as she is unreliable. She isn’t actually present for 90% of the film’s action but seems to know a hell of a lot more than a catfish should. As Maggie herself predicts a few earthquakes and the sink holes that keep happening, she may in fact be more than your average catfish.
A flawed but amusing at times comedy that tries to cover far more than it really needs to. One thing I’d like to know, is what the hell was that hospital advert with gorillas about?!
@BFI