Rating: R
Runtime: 2 hours, 16 minutes
Director: Noah Baumbach
Quick Impressions:
I have a confession to make. I have never seen a Noah Baumbach movie before. Of course, I’m familiar with his name, and the names of his movies (especially The Squid and the Whale, nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Margot at the Wedding which I came so close to watching, and also Frances Ha, starring his current partner Greta Gerwig). But even though I’ve considered watching his work on a number of occasions, I somehow never did.
So after years of hearing positive things about Baumbach’s work, Marriage Story is the only film written and directed by him that I have actually seen (unless I did watch Margot at the Wedding, but I think I just remember people talking about Kidman’s performance.)
At any rate, Marriage Story is good. I see why everyone has been predicting it for Oscar nominations in major categories all year, and why it won practically everything at the Gotham Awards a few days ago.
And finally I understand why Adam Driver’s name keeps coming up more frequently than Scarlett Johansson’s in critics’ citations (though, as expected, both are nominated at the Golden Globes). Both stars give excellent performances, but Driver’s character ends up being somewhat more sympathetic (or, at least, more pitiable) with what feels like more screentime and more of a chance to emote. (We see a full range of emotions from her, too. His is just so much more…conspicuous.) To be honest, this is probably the most undeniable male lead performance I’ve seen…recently. (I originally said “this year,” but then kept making exceptions for people I’d forgotten until the exceptions took up most of the sentence. But I think Driver’s performance here is more conspicuously deserving than Robert DeNiro’s in The Irishman.) (I wrote that sentence last night, but now I see that the Hollywood Foreign Press apparently shared my sentiments.) After seeing Driver’s performance, it seems impossible to me that he won’t get an Oscar nomination for his work here, especially given the amazing year he’s had in general.
Marriage Story is on Netflix now, so anyone with an account can easily watch from home. But don’t watch it unless you’re in the mood to cry. Also if you suspect your spouse is contemplating divorcing you, but you’re not into that yourself, watch something else. This is raw and real and full of big, genuine emotions. My parents left before Alan Alda did. They didn’t enjoy watching this heart-wrenching story at all. And to be honest, the movie made me pretty frustrated for long stretches. But if you enjoy reflections on divorce, you won’t find a better one this year (unless maybe you’re getting divorced yourself and spend lots of time reflecting on it. Obviously your own reflections will seem more meaningful to you).
The Good:
As I look back at this movie, I keep remembering one of my daughter’s favorite anecdotes. When she was in kindergarten, one day, she told her boyfriend that she was breaking up with him. And he said, “No,” and ran away.
That’s honestly the first half of this movie in a nutshell. Johansson’s Nicole says, “We are getting divorced, and I’m moving to LA with our son.” And Driver’s Charlie says, “No!” and runs away. But this strategy doesn’t work out for him because Nicole hires a lawyer.
The movie has a big cast–Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, Merritt Weaver, Julie Hagerty! (We watch Airplane! from time to time, but otherwise, I haven’t seen her in years! Welcome back into my life, Julie Hagerty! She’s great in this, too. It makes you wish for a SAG win for this cast.)
The performances are all fantastic. Adam Driver would be a deserving Best Actor winner. Laura Dern seems likely to win Best Supporting Actress.
The story is sad but incredibly real. Divorce touches almost everyone, and this movie portrays it as the primal, shattering tragedy that it is. Yes, sometimes it has to happen. But even in the best of cases, ending a union is sad, and the process is grueling, draining, demoralizing, (and expensive!) especially when there are children involved.
Honestly if the two separating partners in this movie hadn’t shared a child, the film could have easily shaved two hours off its runtime.
As an actors’ showcase, Marriage Story is wonderful. Driver has the best part and makes the absolute most of it. Johansson gets to be very real here. She manages to be emotive and natural at the same time. It’s excellent work, but to be honest, here she’s a scene partner, and in Jojo Rabbit, she’s a scene stealer. I personally prefer her turn in that film and would rather see her nominated for Best Supporting Actress this year. But in all likelihood if she’s limited to one nomination, it will be as lead actress in Marriage Story. Adam Driver outshines her though (through no fault of hers). Driver has what is clearly the best part. The script affords him the opportunity to display every possible human emotion. (Near the end, he even gets to sing an entire Stephen Sondheim song!!!) (Weirdly, Johansson gets one, too, but she performs hers with others in a less serious manner.)
Laura Dern has the second best part. Everyone says she’s likely to win Best Supporting Actress, so I believe them (though if I got a vote, I prefer Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers). But I like Dern’s performance, too. Who doesn’t like Laura Dern? (Apparently my mother isn’t crazy about her, as I just learned. But seriously, how can you not like someone who gleefully says, “Pew! Pew!” while firing her blaster in Star Wars?) Yet here Dern plays a vicious divorce lawyer, a hard-hearted shark who might easily be accused of hating men and ruining lives. By all reports, Laura Dern is so nice, and, despite her friendly smiles and sweet offers of tasty refreshments, Nora Fanshaw is not (except, shhh, I like her. She advocates for someone who struggles to articulate her own needs). Aside from Charlie, the male protagonist, I find Dern’s character the most well-written and complex in the movie.
I also just loved seeing Julie Hagerty and Alan Alda, and I found both of their characters so delightful.
In general, the characters’ emotions feel real, their behavior seems natural, and the dialogue is charming (maybe sometimes too charming).
Best Scene:
The moment when Charlie and Nicole finally break down and lash out at each other is definitely one of the best scenes of the year. Not only is it full of energy and passion, but it also feels natural, real. And it provides such a showcase for Adam Driver’s talents. It also finally reintroduces Nicole’s point of view, providing a more balanced exchange than most of the movie.
I also have to mention the opening scene of the film, which is almost identical to the movie’s trailers (just longer), a montage of what Nicole and Charlie love about each other. This scene could stand on its own as a highly moving short film.
Best Scene Visually:
The end of the scene when Charlie helps Nicole with the gate is the only part of the movie that made an impression on me visually.
Best Action Sequence:
The thing with the knife reminds me so much of something I might do. Charlie’s wince-inducing method of helping his guest with the door is such a trainwreck of poor judgment. I thought, “This is probably the way this situation would play out for me.” I often reflect that if I were a man, people would view me as such a threat. I am also awkward and volatile, but I’m usually seen as harmless. Charlie also intends no harm in this scene, but I’m sure his guest finds his behavior alarming, nonetheless.
Most Oscar Worthy Moment, Adam Driver:
It’s so hard not to feel for Charlie. He comes from an abusive background. Essentially, Nicole’s mother has become like his mother, too. His wife and son are his only real family. By leaving him, insisting that her mother and sister sever their relationships with him, too, and taking their young son to live with her on the other side of the country, Nicole basically takes everything from him.
It’s a great part for anybody because it’s hard not to feel for this guy. Plus, it allows him to show such a vast array of emotions, and reactions that range from subtle to perhaps-you-should-be-restrained-for-your-own-safety intense. And for some reason, his complete breakdown into weeping, screaming rage is such a pleasure to watch. I wanted to cackle, “Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you!” By the time he was raving about death fantasies, I barely managed not to scream, “Adam Driver, you beautiful Sith Lord, the Dark Side of the Force is going to guide you all the way to an Oscar!”
I love the moment when he’s screaming at Scarlett Johansson near the end of the film and just takes his frustration way too far. I found it both horrifying and relatable, and channelling horrifying and relatable simultaneously is not something just anyone can do.
I am also a fan of the way he cries at the end of the film as he listens to something (and also the way he opens a gift in the beginning).
Most Oscar Worthy Moment, Scarlett Johansson:
Johansson’s role here frustrates me because she’s doing excellent work that would shine under other circumstances. But in this case, Adam Driver is so next level that he overshadows and eclipses her. Maybe some of it is his talent, but it helps that he has a better part.
Her work here is wonderful, though. One great thing about the role is that it really humanizes and normalizes her. In real life, Johansson is gorgeous, rich, talented. She’s been a star since she was very young. She’s most famous for playing a superhero who is now a household name. But here, Johansson plays a woman who expresses emotions anyone might feel. She seems so genuine. The performance is so natural. I wish she had a showier part, like Driver’s. But she still has a meaty role, and she completely delivers.
As I’ve said, the big fight near the end is amazing, but I also like her first scene with her lawyer, the early scene with her mother and sister, and also the way she reacts to what is said in the courtroom by Ray Liotta. Honestly, every moment she has is brilliant. I just wish Driver’s character didn’t dominate the entire middle of the movie.
Most Oscar Worthy Moment, Laura Dern:
Dern is certainly playing against type here as calculating divorce lawyer Nora Fanshaw. At least, I usually see her playing extremely sympathetic characters. (Maybe her TV characters are darker. I’ve been trying to find a time to watch Little Big Lies for years with no success.) Here she’s practically a villain. Actually, I can’t decide if Nora is intended to be a villain or not. If you can keep a secret, I’ll go ahead and divulge that by the end of the movie, I liked her character. What everyone keeps saying about her is true. She’s a very good lawyer. (She’s not there to be a friend to the couple or a marriage counselor or a spiritual advisor. She’s Nicole’s lawyer, and she does an excellent job, helping her client articulate what she wants and guiding her through the steps it takes to get those things.)
Without a doubt, Dern’s best moment is her potentially blasphemous meditation on the family dynamic Jesus’ parents shared. Part of you thinks, “What an odious person! She shouldn’t say those things!” And part of you thinks, “She’s right, though.” Her character fascinates me. She says some “terrible” things, but she’s very good at her job. I’m also a fan of this entire scene because we see what a good lawyer she is. Her client clearly needs her guidance. Charlie needs help like this, too, but he doesn’t have it, and we see how that works out for him.
The Negatives:
The movie begins by giving both spouses equal voices, so we get the idea that we’ll be getting both of their stories in equal measure. But that’s not what happens. Early on, we get a lot of Nicole. Then suddenly she’s almost completely silenced, and we get this enormously long section from Charlie’s point of view in which he is so blindsided and piteous, it ought to be called Poor Charlie: The Movie.
This bothered me. It bothered my husband, too. When we talked after the movie, he admitted that he found it frustrating. I found it grating, almost enraging. The movie forces us to feel so sorry for Charlie. It makes Nicole look like an absolute villain. So this is why Driver’s performance is buzzier than Johansson’s. Overall, his character is much more sympathetic. At least, he spends more of the movie’s runtime being more sympathetic. But that really isn’t fair. While I was watching, I thought, “I’m getting angry that I am being forced to feel so sorry for this guy.”
This is hard to explain. I love Driver’s performance and feel tremendous sympathy (and empathy) for his character, but then I simultaneously feel angry that I am made to feel such sympathy for Charlie at the expense of Nicole. That’s how I experienced the movie. Marriage Story presents itself as a mature, compassionate look at divorce from both points of view. And then suddenly it’s all about Charlie for the entire middle of the movie.
The character of Charlie is so frustrating, too. He genuinely appears blindsided that his wife is divorcing him and plans to live in LA. But this is very strange because everyone else knows. The whole theater company seems to be gossiping about it. (There’s another thing that comes up, too, and he insists he knew the marriage was basically over when it happened. If that’s the case, why doesn’t he know that the marriage is over now?)
For a long time, I got quite suspicious that the movie’s goal was actually to show us how much the male writer/director had suffered through his divorce.
Now Noah Baumbach says this isn’t about his own divorce from Jennifer Jason Leigh, and I believe him. (I mean, for one thing, their son was much younger when they divorced, and Baumbach didn’t start dating Greta Gerwig until after the his marriage ended. Before that, they just worked together. That’s what he says, and I certainly have no grounds for questioning him.) Of course, the release of this movie has brought tons of gossipy speculation. I encounter it regularly in internet comments sections. But Baumbach says that his screenplay is drawn from life, not specifically based on the events of his particular life. Yes, Jennifer Jason Leigh moved back to LA, even though he considers himself a New Yorker, and yes she starred in Fast Times at Ridgemont High kind of like Nicole did that teen comedy everyone (in the film) keeps talking about. But we write what we know. Of course he has drawn from his own experiences. What other experiences does he have? But this story isn’t about the particulars of his life. It’s just about life. He has to make it real, or else, what’s the point?
What he says does make sense. I am also a writer, though a less successful one than Baumbach. And I swear, every time I write a character who has a mother (which is often because I write a lot of YA), my own mother steadfastly believes that particular fictional mother is based directly on her. It doesn’t matter how many times I insist that these characters are not based on her and have nothing to do with her (because, honestly, they usually are not even faintly inspired by her). My mother sees herself all over all my writing, no matter how much I protest. And I know I’m telling the truth.
So if Baumbach says the divorce in his movie is not meant to be a dramatization of his own divorce, I find that easy to believe. He’s even said that he showed the a screenplay to Jennifer Jason Leigh, and she liked it (though, admittedly, if it were secretly about her, she would be unlikely to throw a big humiliating fit about it publicly).
I also heard Scarlett Johansson say in an interview that she collaborated with Baumbach on the project from its earliest stages, before the script was even written. So details that people might see as related to Baumbach’s own divorce might just as easily have been suggested by Scarlett Johansson (who does share a child with an ex-husband from France, after all).
If I did not believe Baumbach, I would dislike the film more than I do. That’s because the longer we watch, the more the film seems to turn into Poor Charlie: The Movie. I do believe him, but I still kept wondering, feeling irked, “Is the purpose of this film actually to manipulate me into believing the writer was the more wronged party in his divorce?”
But then I think I am being unfair. Here’s why.
The thing is, the only reason I am able to point to Charlie’s faults and the subtly shown merit to Nicole’s complaints about him is that I have seen these things in the movie. All evidence about Nicole’s character (and Charlie’s) is drawn from the movie. So how can I accuse the screenwriter of making Charlie unfairly sympathetic at Nicole’s expense? He wrote the movie, the whole movie. All of my evidence against him is coming from his own movie. I wouldn’t know anything about Charlie or Nicole if I hadn’t watched the movie.
Still, for a huge portion of the film’s runtime, you naturally feel sorry for Charlie and distanced from Nicole. It is far more natural to sympathize with Charlie, but while watching and having these reactions, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being manipulated. When I examine this issue objectively, I see that the writer also created all the evidence I see of Charlie’s weaknesses. If I perceive justification for Nicole’s behavior, that’s because Baumbach wrote it into the script. I can’t shake the feeling, though. Even though I know rationally that I am watching a talented, thoughtful filmmaker’s meditations on divorce, I still feel like I am watching Here’s How She Done Me Wrong: The Movie.
I also thought the character of Henry, the child, is not as successfully drawn as the others in the film. I could not figure this child out. In several instances, his behavior seemed off to me and he felt slightly unreal. (The parents feel 100 percent true. The kid feels false.) I kept thinking, “His mother must know him much better than his father,” because there seems to be such a strange disconnect between father and son. Also, the child is eight and struggles with what sounds letters make. I assume, then, that he has a learning disability, but his mother never mentions this or seems concerned about it, even when she is explicitly discussing his education and academic performance. What really bothers me is that the father/son relationship we see described by Nicole in the opening scene is not what we see in the interactions between Henry and Charlie during the rest of the film. Is this done deliberately to show the sad changes divorce can bring?
Ultimately, Marriage Story is well written, quite realistic, and superbly acted, but it is just so sad and depressing. I understand that divorce is sad and depressing (or that it can be). I know that the film is supposed to make me have all these feelings, but they are such unpleasant feelings.
Probably all of the problems I have with Marriage Story are actually indicators of its strength and success. At first, everything is balanced, and the voices speak together, but divorce severs that relationship, leaving each former partner in painful isolation. I get it. Baumbach is probably achieving exactly what he set out to do. But, if I’m being honest, I’d rather watch something else.
Overall:
I haven’t made up my mind about Marriage Story yet. Writing this review has been a torturous process to me. I have so many things to say that feel negative, yet this very fact might be a point in the film’s favor. That I want to discuss the characters so much probably means that the screenplay is brilliant. Of the stars, I think Driver both has the best part and does the most with it, but Johansson is excellent, too, and Laura Dern is probably going to win Best Supporting Actress playing the most interesting character in the film. If you’re a Netflix subscriber, you might as well watch Marriage Story. It will cost you nothing but 2 hours and 16 minutes. Be prepared for some depressing material, though.