‘Marriage Story’ gives an engaging, emotional look at divorce
Divorce is almost never an amicable process, even when both parties initially set out to make it as smooth as possible. Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story offers an engaging and emotional look at the evolution of a divorce and how the lengthy process can change the people involved.
Adam Driver is Charlie, a successful theatre director living in New York with his wife Nicole (Scarlett Johansson), a TV star-turned-theatre actress, and their young son Henry (Azhy Robertson). At first, their marriage doesn’t appear to be bad enough to warrant a divorce, but it starts to become clear that they’ve grown apart. Nicole wants an identity of her own that isn’t constantly overshadowed by Charlie’s rising star. Charlie wants a partner with a team mentality who is fully invested in their theatre company.
Their separation begins very civilly and they strive to still stay friends, but that all starts to deteriorate when Nicole hires powerful divorce attorney Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern) to handle the situation for her. Charlie is caught off guard and hires mild-mannered Bert Spitz (Alan Alda), who seems to offer better life advice than ruthless legal expertise. There’s a question of custody for their son, the issue of which coast the family actually calls home—she wants everything based in L.A. and he feels much more at home in New York. Things continue to subtly escalate and eventually, Charlie opts to go with the tougher, more cutthroat Jay Marotta (Ray Liotta) to help him fight for Henry and what he feels he deserves.
Like many of Baumbach’s other films, the focus here is on character relationships rather than major plot points, a perfect approach when you have actors as talented as Driver and Johansson. Neither Charlie nor Nicole are bad people—they don’t even really dislike each other—they’re just not the people they were when they fell in love, and they’re willing to get increasingly aggressive with their lawyers as they carve out their new places in the world independent from one another. There are painful moments, anger and frustration, awkward reassessment and even deep mutual respect, but none of it feels like actors acting. Instead, both leads give us natural, relatable subtly, even if they’re both two upper-class white people who probably have more money and success than we’d ever experience in our lives.
There are no real villains in the story, though it could be argued that Nora is a driving force in amping up the tension between the two former spouses and she pushes Nicole to get what she feels she deserves. Even then, Nora doesn’t seem malicious. This is her job and she’s good at it. At one point, she even pauses mid-argument to compliment Charlie on his play. Dern, of course, is fantastic in the role. You’ll be reminded of Renata Klein from HBO’s incredible series Big Little Lies as she shifts from sympathetic to harsh and back again.
Driver once again proves that he might just be the best actor of his generation with a performance that is both raw and emotional as well as controlled and subdued. He’s so overflowing with talent that his every scene is just enthralling to watch. His choices make his characters real people in a way that goes beyond any script or director.
Even if a story about two well-off people getting divorced doesn’t immediately strike you as fascinating, Marriage Story is a must-see for anyone who appreciates incredible performances from fantastic actors.
