Marriage Story: A Beautifully Crafted Love Story About Divorce
Writer/director Noam Baumbach follows up 2017’s The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) with something even better. In fact, Marriage Story may just be the greatest achievement of Baumbach’s nearly 25-year career. The film is brilliantly acted, masterfully directed, and wonderfully written, offering incisive, heartbreaking and heart-mending takes on love, life, and the dissolution of the ties that bind us.
A stage director, Charlie (Adam Driver), and his actor wife, Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal and creative extremes.
Marriage Story offers an acutely clinical — and borderline educational — look at divorce and everything that comes along with it, but it isn’t the hellish misery you might suspect. Well, it is, and it isn’t. The film is full of some truly uncomfortable and heartbreaking moments, but it goes down surprisingly smooth, all things considered. It seems odd to say, but Baumbach’s latest divorce film may just be the heartwarming feel-good movie of the year (rivaled only by Little Women or maybe Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), and it oozes a charisma and sweetness that undercuts any of its bitter or crushing aspects.
Divorce in films either lends itself to a grim and serious drama (like 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer) or a lighthearted comedy (like Mrs. Doubtfire or The Parent Trap), and they rarely give both parties equal treatment, vilifying one entirely or taking one side over the other in a heated custody battle. The divorce film almost never gets to have the best of both worlds, but after two and half decades in filmmaking, Baumbach has finally cracked the code. Despite the excruciating divorce that plays out on screen, Marriage Story is more of a hopeful and touching love story about two individuals who’ve fallen out of love, than it is about the total destruction of a union. Bookended with moments of absolute tenderness and deep affection, the harrowing and increasingly hostile events that unfold are effectively softened. This structural convention allows the viewer to get an immediate understanding of the love the brought Charlie and Nicole together and how the love remains even after the marriage dissolves — something which makes its story tug on the ole heartstrings all the more.
Baumbach draws out a lot of symbolism and contrast between the two characters through his use of division in setting, blocking, and use of editing. Similar to Annie Hall (one of the all-time great break-up films), there is an east and west separation — Charlie is a New York guy; whereas, Nicole is L.A. gal — which reinforces the distance between them that’s emerged over the course of their marriage and showcases the clear difference in their personality. The cities also serve as illustrations of their wants and how careers can possibly cause people to drift apart — Nicole needs to go to L.A. for her TV career, but Charlie’s got a thriving indie theater troupe which he oversees as director in the Big Apple. Yet, as Baumbach shows us in the film’s many tender moments (which are elevated beautifully by Randy Newman’s wonderful score), it was their differences that brought them together and allowed them to function pretty well — until it didn’t anymore.
The film is gracefully genre-fluid; it’s a courtroom drama, it’s a love story, it’s a comedy, it’s an informative and incisive break-up film, it’s a piece of theater, and at one point, it sort of becomes a musical. (Adam Driver sings “Being Alive” and it is absolutely wonderful). It effectively and viscerally takes the viewer through the proceedings of a divorce to the point that you feel right there with the characters. Baumbach makes them each relatable and real, and he allows the viewer to see both Nicole and Charlie’s perspective. He also illustrates how divorce hardens and alters the parties involved, causing them to want things they weren’t previously interested in or go back on their word (which legally means nothing), which may be partially brought on or heightened by the cutthroat lawyers that get involved. The film also shows how savage things can become once custody becomes a topic of conversation, and how the tiniest events and accidents can be flung in the face of the offender to make them look unfit as parents (which neither Nicole or Charlie are bad parents). And through all the heartbreak and devastation, the true triumph of Marriage Story’s narrative is how it shows that love and affection can still exist between two people who go through something as horrendous as divorce.
Of course, any review would be incomplete without discussing about the film’s cast or its many terrific performances because they elevate the material to another plane of existence. Marriage Story’s ensemble cast is one of the best of the year, and it boasts fine performances from all those involved. Front and center is Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, and each gives a career-best performance that is incredibly raw and personal, canvassing a wide spectrum of emotions and feeling, which all ring with heart wrenching and heartwarming authenticity. Each of them deserves a lot of nominations (and awards) for the work they put in here.
Laura Dern is amazing as Nicole’s savage, yet cheery divorce lawyer, and she delivers some viciously funny lines and monologues. Similarly, Ray Liotta is very solid as Charlie’s cutthroat and no-bullshit divorce lawyer. However, of all the great support here, Alan Alda absolutely emerges as the clear standout. He’s not just very good, but he’s the one character who really treats Charlie like a human. He sometimes provides humorous contradictory advice (which just goes to show you how many different ways there is for someone to control the narrative in these situations), but he’s warm, down-to-earth, and instantly stands out against the savagery and torment the divorce causes.
When you couple the performances with Baumbach’s focused direction and acute writing and add on Newman’s score, you’ve pretty much got a masterpiece that will warm your heart and punch you in the gut. We’ve watched it a few times now, and it honestly just keeps getting better.
Recommendation: Absolutely check this out! It’s one Netflix (which we all have logins for in one way or another), and for our money, it sits up there amongst 2019’s very best.
Rating: 5 cries outta 5.
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!