Marriage Story stars Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver as Nicole and Charlie, respectively, a married couple experiencing marital troubles and eventually going through a divorce. Nicole leaves their New York apartment and relocates to Los Angeles, with Charlie trying to balance his time between his theater company in New York and going to LA to be near his son Henry, played by Azhy Robertson. While Nicole and Charlie try to remain amicable through the proceedings, the pressure from their lawyers, played by Laura Dern, Ray Liotta, and Alan Alda, lead them down a path that make the situation much more stressful.
This is a film that was highly personal to writer-director Noah Baumbach, who drew from his own divorce as inspiration. And he handles everything with such tender love and care. Never once does the film go out of its way to vilify either party. It begins with each of them reading to themselves what they like most about the other (something they don’t get to read to each other), with clips of their happiest moments playing over the narration. And from there, this movie has the audience hooked and on board with both these characters.
The film is a brutal portrayal of how the divorce proceedings can make things a lot worse than they actually are. Through much of the film, Nicole and Charlie are very amicable with one another, and are doing their best to try making things easier for Henry. However, it’s whenever the lawyers get involved that things get murky, and it causes both characters to say and do things they would have otherwise never said. They try painting the other party in an awfully negative light while breathing down their necks to fight dirtier than they wanted to.
There isn’t as much fighting between the actual couple as most other movies portraying a divorce would show. But there is this ongoing sense of anxiety that hovers over the film with each passing scene. It’s clear both Nicole and Charlie are trying their best not to snap at one another. They try hurrying through certain conversations after a while after saying something suggested by one of the lawyers, while they both feel this sense of needing to make quick decisions they’re clearly not ready to make.
It’s a very emotional, often heavy film that can really take its toll on the audience’s emotions after a while, as things begin to get dragged out more and more. Though Baumbach tries easing up the tension with brilliant moments of humor from time to time. There are some excellent moments of irony here. There’s one instance where the lawyers speak to each other before walking into court, discussing a charity event some mutual friends had in such a nonchalant matter, right before both fly off the handle while actually in court. There’s another scene where an evaluator is sent to monitor Charlie while he watches Henry, and despite her being the one who has more of the power in the scenario, she’s so naturally nervous she can barely get a word out.
And all of the actors handle the material with such grace. Adam Driver gives by far the biggest standout performance of them all, bursting with energy and exploding with rage as he tries his hardest to just make things right. Scarlett Johansson is also fantastic, as she tries holding everything together and spews out whatever she’s told to say, though with that sense she may not truly be saying the right thing. Both of them play their respective roles with such nuance. They’re both angry with the other, but they don’t want things to go as horribly as they see it’s going, but they simply have a hard time getting along, and can’t seem to avoid the divorce getting uglier and uglier.
Also just as fantastic to watch are the film’s supporting cast, all of whom are given plenty to do. Laura Dern is the biggest standout from the rest of the bunch. She gives off a commanding energy that’s one part very funny and the other extremely tense, as she’s the one mainly adding fuel to the fire.
Ray Liotta is equally as brash as the second of Charlie’s lawyers, going toe to toe with Dern during the proceedings that leads to one of the film’s more heartbreaking moments, as the two attempt to go on a smear campaign against the other’s clients. Alan Alda also has a very funny supporting part as the first lawyer Charlie hires, with his comical indecision and contradictory statements also repeatedly lighting a fuse. The sweetest of the bunch though is Julie Hagerty as Nicole’s mother, who still treats Charlie like family through the proceedings in such a way that it leads to some moments of pure comic relief that help ease some of the tension.
Marriage Story is a painful look at divorce and showing how it could truly bring out the worst in people, even when they’re really trying to avoid the worst from happening. It’s an often funny, but even more often heartbreaking film with truly fleshed out characters that easily captivate the audience right from the get-go and has viewers hooked all the way through the final shot. It’s an often heavy film with an ongoing sense of anxiety, but Noah Baumbach handles the material gracefully, finding ways to ease the tension while still showing how daunting the whole process can be. Led by some truly incredible performances, particularly from its main two stars, Marriage Story is one of the finest films Netflix had to offer this year.
Recommendation: Watch It
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