Marriage Story (B or 3/4 stars)
'Marriage Story' (directed by writer/director Noah Baumbach) tells a bitter tale about the end of a marriage. At first, we watch as Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) & Charlie (Adam Driver) recall what they love about each other. She is fun, a great mother & a great actress/dancer. He is orderly, a great father & cries at movies. But their 10 yr. marriage is about to dissolve into separation {at least} and even a mediator cannot keep them civil. Charlie is a dedicated, up-&-coming Brooklyn theater director and, for years, Nicole has been his muse. But Nicole has felt 2nd best to Charlie's career and, when she's given a chance to ignite her dormant career as a TV actress in L.A. {where she is from & where her family lives} ... divorce is on the table for her.
So Nicole takes their 8 yr. old boy, Henry (Azhy Robertson), & moves back to Cali, enjoying the proximity to her irreverent mother (Julie Hagerty) & neurotic sister (Merritt Wever). After Nicole hires no-nonsense, high-powered, celebrity divorce attorney, Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern), Charlie realizes that Nicole's L.A. visit will likely become permanent and, if he wants shared custody of Henry, he may have to relocate west, give-up a lucrative new Broadway show, & spend lots of $$ to lawyer-up, as well. The divorce proceedings were meant to go smoothly with little drama & disruption. But matters become increasingly acrimonious when Nora manipulates not only Charlie's two lawyers, milquetoast Ben Spirtz (Alan Alda) & bullish Jay Marotta (Ray Liotta), but also Nicole into going for the jugular; leading to one explosive living room fight & some late-breaking catharsis.
Based on Baumbach's own 2013 divorce from actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, the film feels authentic & personal; showing the personal toll {emotional, physical, monetary} of the divorce process -- this is NOT a 'date night movie', folks! To that, the only people I would likely recommend this film to would be cinephiles so as to observe excellent acting from a host of great actors. Sure, divorcees may find the raw emotions & legal system woes depicted in the film to be therapeutic to some extent. But aside from some good writing, solid cinematography, decent editing, a treacly music score, yadayada ... the film belongs to the actors.
Driver is believable as a controlling narcissist who exudes confusion & pain throughout his dive into bicoastal separation. It's a very good performance, but explodes into genius territory during his volcanic, diarrhea-of-the-mouth rant that occurs during his heated argument with Johansson late in the game in the middle of a barren living room. And Johansson lends similar vulnerability to Nicole; who loves the man she married, but can no longer stand the cage she's been pent-up in. Her best scene occurs early in which she rambles to Nora about the story of her marriage; the dialogue & performance in that scene felt very Woody Allen-esque {no surprise, she was Allen's muse a few times}. The rest of the cast is game, too. Julie Hagerty as Nicole's flibbertigibbet mom, who doesn't want to stop loving ex-son-in-law, Charlie; Wallace Shawn as the stage star reminding all of his former glory days; Alan Alda as the genteel, aged lawyer who doesn't have the right stuff; Ray Liotta as, well, Ray Liotta as a lawyer {haha}; and Laura Dern as a superficially empathetic divorce lawyer whose claws come out with little prompting.
Pro critics love this film as an incisive, sensitive cautionary tale of a divorce -- and I get that. Baumbach dishes on the ugliness & unfairness of divorce settlements, how lawyers soak-up the glory/$$, how feelings are hurt; not to mention how children become a pawn in custody disputes. But it all just left me a little cold. Some of the arguments felt too verbose & scripted. There's also an odd scene involving a retractable knife that made me chuckle, yet also made me think: why is that in this film? Watching these affluent, privileged characters bicker & explode to the point of exhaustion isn't a 'good time' at the theater. As mentioned, I admired the deep, devastating performances that bare it all. But Kramer vs. Kramer or War of the Roses, this is not.
So Nicole takes their 8 yr. old boy, Henry (Azhy Robertson), & moves back to Cali, enjoying the proximity to her irreverent mother (Julie Hagerty) & neurotic sister (Merritt Wever). After Nicole hires no-nonsense, high-powered, celebrity divorce attorney, Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern), Charlie realizes that Nicole's L.A. visit will likely become permanent and, if he wants shared custody of Henry, he may have to relocate west, give-up a lucrative new Broadway show, & spend lots of $$ to lawyer-up, as well. The divorce proceedings were meant to go smoothly with little drama & disruption. But matters become increasingly acrimonious when Nora manipulates not only Charlie's two lawyers, milquetoast Ben Spirtz (Alan Alda) & bullish Jay Marotta (Ray Liotta), but also Nicole into going for the jugular; leading to one explosive living room fight & some late-breaking catharsis.
Based on Baumbach's own 2013 divorce from actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, the film feels authentic & personal; showing the personal toll {emotional, physical, monetary} of the divorce process -- this is NOT a 'date night movie', folks! To that, the only people I would likely recommend this film to would be cinephiles so as to observe excellent acting from a host of great actors. Sure, divorcees may find the raw emotions & legal system woes depicted in the film to be therapeutic to some extent. But aside from some good writing, solid cinematography, decent editing, a treacly music score, yadayada ... the film belongs to the actors.
Driver is believable as a controlling narcissist who exudes confusion & pain throughout his dive into bicoastal separation. It's a very good performance, but explodes into genius territory during his volcanic, diarrhea-of-the-mouth rant that occurs during his heated argument with Johansson late in the game in the middle of a barren living room. And Johansson lends similar vulnerability to Nicole; who loves the man she married, but can no longer stand the cage she's been pent-up in. Her best scene occurs early in which she rambles to Nora about the story of her marriage; the dialogue & performance in that scene felt very Woody Allen-esque {no surprise, she was Allen's muse a few times}. The rest of the cast is game, too. Julie Hagerty as Nicole's flibbertigibbet mom, who doesn't want to stop loving ex-son-in-law, Charlie; Wallace Shawn as the stage star reminding all of his former glory days; Alan Alda as the genteel, aged lawyer who doesn't have the right stuff; Ray Liotta as, well, Ray Liotta as a lawyer {haha}; and Laura Dern as a superficially empathetic divorce lawyer whose claws come out with little prompting.
Pro critics love this film as an incisive, sensitive cautionary tale of a divorce -- and I get that. Baumbach dishes on the ugliness & unfairness of divorce settlements, how lawyers soak-up the glory/$$, how feelings are hurt; not to mention how children become a pawn in custody disputes. But it all just left me a little cold. Some of the arguments felt too verbose & scripted. There's also an odd scene involving a retractable knife that made me chuckle, yet also made me think: why is that in this film? Watching these affluent, privileged characters bicker & explode to the point of exhaustion isn't a 'good time' at the theater. As mentioned, I admired the deep, devastating performances that bare it all. But Kramer vs. Kramer or War of the Roses, this is not.