Genre: Drama/ Comedy/ Romance
Runtime: 136 minutes
Year: 2019
Starring: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, Merritt Weaver, Julia Hagerty, Wallace Shawn
Description: Noah Baumbach’s incisive and compassionate look at a marriage breaking up and a family staying together.
Review: “Marriage Story” follows the story of two young parents in a divorce. Their flame is as good as out. She wants this and he wants that. And with a child between them, their divorce is not the same as simply ‘not being in love anymore’. It’s all a bit more complex.
For director Noah Baumbach this is familiar territory. Some time ago, the filmmaker himself, was separated from actress Jennifer Jason Leigh. Although we should never automatically blame the filmmaker for these fictitious events, “Marriage Story” seems to be an obvious look over Baumbach’s shoulder. In “Marriage Story” he flirts very sympathetically with his own story: that of a director and an actress who are in a divorce.
At the beginning of the film, both are instructed by a mediator to write down the good things about each other. He about her and she about him. About their peculiarities, parenting and other qualities. But to read the story aloud for her almost-ex (something like ‘the opposite of a fiancée) goes a little too far for Nicole. She leaves the session stamping het feet and yells at Charlie and the mediator, because they ‘get along so well’.
This comical and dramatic opening scene sets the tone of what is to com: bizarre (but realistic), sentimental (but cheerful) and intense (but also warm-hearted) scenes from a broken marriage. Slowly but surely their relationship becomes one of subpoenas, lawyers and guardianship issues, not knowing that they are pushing each other so closely into a corner.
Like other Baumbach films, “Marriage Story” is also full of lightness and healthy irony. More than enough in fact: Woody Allen is emphatically echoing in this wonderful work, including razor-sharp dialogues and long, uninterrupted scenes. Johansson and Driver form a perfect couple. Even though, ironically enough, they are in a divorce.
Because “Marriage Story” is undeniably supported by their acting skills and those of the rest of the cast (especially the two spirited divorce lawyers, played by Laura Dern and Ray Liotta). The happiness and misfortune that Charlie and Nicole experience at a wild pace, feels very natural and is beautifully captured by clever direction. The fact that Charlie enters the stage of melancholy mood and picks up the microphone to sing “Being Alive” by Stephen Sondheim, fits in perfectly with the film. This scene, and the ‘big fight’ between Charlie and Nicole, where the best moments of the film.
And even if it’s about a divorce: according to Baumbach, it’s worth looking at the wedding story just then. Do that too.
“Marriage Story” is one of the best films of 2019m I just can’t fault it.
Rating: 5/ 5
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