Marriage Story

When asked to name my favorite director, a lot of filmmakers come to mind; However, when I boil it down to what I enjoy most in a movie – Thick with good dialogue, humor and empathy found in the big, small, uncomfortable and hard moments of life, quirky characters and unexpected silly scenes – I have to name Noah Baumbach as my favorite, because he always finds a way to deliver all that and more. In terms of families in process, we experienced the dysfunction of “The Squid and The Whale” and a couple going through mid-life crises in “While We’re Young” and now “Marriage Story” which is not about what happens during a marriage, but rather what takes place once the towel has officially been thrown in.

Though Baumbach’s films aren’t explicitly autobiographical, he frequently draws from his experiences, as all writers do really, but in this case, many viewers will see parallels between Baumbach’s divorce from Jennifer Jason Leigh in these characters. Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) a Hollywood actress who had become the “it” girl before meeting Charlie (Adam Driver) a struggling New York playwright and director. During the course of their marriage tables get turned where she becomes merely the talented actress in his plays, and he’s now considered the creative genius and toast of New York theater. Some of this is what has led to their decision to split up, but rather than drag in lawyers and make things nasty for themselves and their eight-year-old son Henry (Azhy Robertson), they’ve decided to do the whole conscious uncoupling thing and just hire a mediator to emotionally coach them through this divorce.

If I have any issues with the movie, which I thoroughly enjoyed, it would be that I rarely was on Nicole’s side; despite Charlie having had an affair with his stage manager, it’s written so that Nicole’s often the source of where the contention begins.  It’s obvious, as much as Baumbach probably wanted to be fair to each side, he slanted things toward Charlie’s pain and bewilderment.  Even a comical scene involving Nicole’s mother (Julie Hagerty) and sister (Merritt Wever), played like a farce, becomes a moment of betrayal as Charlie is blindsided by being served divorce papers. And another heartbreakingly funny scene where he’s trying to bond with Henry during his Halloween visit and Nicole suggests they have separate Halloween’s with their son, which becomes an epic fail by the time Henry gets to Charlie.

Once things turn legal we get some fantastic performances by Laura Dern (who’s working all the time now) she plays Nicole’s chic, smart, feminist, compassionate shark of a lawyer, Alan Alda plays an avuncular lawyer who’s seen it all and knows there’s no such thing as a non-messy divorce, and Ray Liotta as a crude, we play to win attorney.

What makes “Marriage Story” work is the honesty of the performances — and the agonizing aspects of these two trying to shield their young son from the turmoil of it all. They never completely lose sight of the things that made them fall in love, but sadly, it’s not enough to hold them to one another.

Discussing that quality, the filmmaker cites Jean Renoir’s quote: “The awful thing about life is this: Everyone has their reasons.”

Tinsel & Tine @LAMB rating: 4.5 outta 5