Marriage Story (2019)

By: Mike Ward on Saturday, January 04

R Running Time: 134 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

Fans of powerhouse dramatic acting, Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are simply tremendous in Marriage Story.
Noah Baumbach’s deeply personal and visceral domestic drama is a testament to pure, honest writing and the absence of being afraid of one’s own vulnerability.
Few films in recent memory have taken the time to explore the shrapnel-like effect even the most well-intentioned divorces can have on couples working through a deeply emotional experience.

NO

Marriage Story does not hold back on being blunt and honest. As a result, the film may be triggering for some, certainly difficult to enjoy, especially if divorce is something you have personally experienced.
Let the debate begin on whether Noah Baumbach’s screenplay is fair to both Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson’s characters. Perception is everything when it comes to the takeaways with this movie.
If you don’t feel any connection to these characters, Marriage Story is going to be a brutal sit. Some have criticized the film for being “out of touch” with its viewing audience, by creating characters who seem unrelatable. Not my experience, but it might be yours.

OUR REVIEW

Noah Baumbach cuts beyond the quick and finds bone with Marriage Story, a deeply personal film for him, inspired, in part, from a divorce he experienced from actress Jennifer Jason Leigh in the early 2010’s. As a filmmaker who has balanced comedy with drama routinely in his career, there is a stark shift in tone and timbre here that is built on the backs of two dynamic performances from Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, as the couple in question, racing headlong into divorce.

As someone who worked as a paralegal for over a decade in family law practices, Marriage Story gets far more right than it does wrong. From the way attorneys become involved in the process, to the shifting thoughts and wants from a couple wrestling with the reality of their relationship officially ending, to the impact divorce can have on children and extended families, Baumbach should be lauded for how realistic a story he is actually telling here.

And while this is not a feel-good, more-butter-on-the-popcorn type of movie, Marriage Story is one of those dramatic films that speaks to the human condition. Divorce frequently happens in society, and as we understand, more frequently than ever before. Baumbach is careful not to demonize either character in his story, and though some could argue that his story may tilt one way or the other, the threading of the needle that happens here is commendable and impressive.

Having watched Marriage Story twice now, the film available for streaming on Netflix, you have to at least find some way to connect with Driver and Johansson’s characters, or this movie can be a long, suffocating slog to get through.

Charlie (Driver) is a theater director in New York City and Nicole (Johansson) an actor who just landed a television pilot in Los Angeles. Nicole has supported Charlie’s endeavors and was a former teen star who now has an opportunity to restart her career. Differences abound as to what the plans may have ultimately been, but their young son Henry (Azhy Robertson) is moving to Los Angeles with Nicole, who will, in turn, be moving in with her mother (Julie Hagerty) while she gets settled.

Charlie’s repertory company is excited at the prospects of their latest play potentially going to Broadway and Charlie agrees to split his time between commitments in New York City and flying to Los Angeles to see Henry. Understandably, this starts to become an untenable situation, and though they agreed to settle the divorce without attorneys, Nicole takes a meeting with the highly recommended Nora (Laura Dern).

From there, Charlie is forced to hire an attorney (Alan Alda), then another (Ray Liotta), and the navigating of a divorce from two coasts becomes complicated. Throughout the story, Baumbach’s script ratchets up the tension between Nicole and Charlie just enough to where the best intentions become lost and no longer their own.

When attorneys become involved, Nicole and Charlie’s divorce is driven by people who really do not know them at all. Charlie fumbles the ball a bit on how to handle things, while Nora remains a steady, supremely confident advisor in Nicole’s day-to-day life.

Driver and Johansson are fantastic here, giving two of the finest performances of their careers. Even though many of us cannot relate to the lives of working actors and theater directors on the precipice of Broadway, all of that is soon stripped away and we begin to see Charlie and Nicole for who they are and what they want. Are they a little bit selfish? Yeah, they are. Should they have ever gotten married in the first place? Maybe, maybe not. Can they each be insufferable? Aren’t we all at times?

Marriage Story is a film that may indeed prove polarizing and strike a nerve with some viewers who have experienced painful divorce in their lives. I was struck by how Baumbach’s film seemed less interested in looking at marriage and divorce, and, outside of scenes involving attorneys and how they engage and practice, really focused on two characters and the ways their journey through divorce is both isolated and communal.

Whether that speaks to improving or detracting from the film’s overall impact is left for the viewers to decide. Charlie and Nicole’s relationship, quite frankly, did not have the years spent or long-term investment put into it to speak to the entire institution of marriage and divorce. Baumbach recognizes this and doesn’t try and do too much.

By staying within those constraints, Marriage Story never suffers from being impersonal. Much has been made of the film’s signature 10-minute argument, the only time that Charlie and Nicole are ever alone together in the film. Internet memes aside, it is a devastating sequence, which, again, has a divisive conclusion that will either have people feeling empathy or anger – depending on how you see the way Charlie and Nicole come together by the end.

Expertly acted from start to finish, the film feels a bit long in the tooth when it comes to trying to tie up final thoughts and final scenes. However, for fans of compelling human-interest dramas, Marriage Story is a movie that will likely be one of the more memorable stories we witness in 2019.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Azhy Robertson, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, Julie Hagerty, Merrit Weaver, Martha Kelly, Wallace Shawn, Robert Smigel, Bashir Salahuddin.

Director: Noah Baumbach
Written by: Noah Baumbach
Release Date: November 6, 2019
Netflix

Fans of powerhouse dramatic acting, Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are simply tremendous in Marriage Story.

Noah Baumbach’s deeply personal and visceral domestic drama is a testament to pure, honest writing and the absence of being afraid of one’s own vulnerability.

Few films in recent memory have taken the time to explore the shrapnel-like effect even the most well-intentioned divorces can have on couples working through a deeply emotional experience.

Marriage Story does not hold back on being blunt and honest. As a result, the film may be triggering for some, certainly difficult to enjoy, especially if divorce is something you have personally experienced.

Let the debate begin on whether Noah Baumbach’s screenplay is fair to both Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson’s characters. Perception is everything when it comes to the takeaways with this movie.

If you don’t feel any connection to these characters, Marriage Story is going to be a brutal sit. Some have criticized the film for being “out of touch” with its viewing audience, by creating characters who seem unrelatable. Not my experience, but it might be yours.