Marriage Story

Marriage Story is a wonderful, wonderful movie. It's one of the year's best scripts (Parasite still is my win here) and it is truly expertly paced - it's not a short movie, but you aren't bored and even though the characters have many, many flaws you care about them enough to be curious what happens to them next.

Nicole and Charlie are going through a divorce. The film opens with a brilliant scene where we hear the things they like about each other, something they wrote in letters, encouraged by their mediator. It's a really good way to introduce us to the characters and let us know why they ended up together in the first place. Then the more we see of them we realize that they really don't work as couple anymore and probably stayed together for as long as they did because they had a kid.

We never see these people when they were happy together being a couple, but we don't have to. There's enough there to believe that once upon a time they made each other happy. But now it's time to leave, a decision Nicole makes, and as almost always is the case, what starts somewhat amicable ends up being the opposite of that.

I didn't cry during this movie. I did get a bit teared up when Charlie was reading the letter near the end but that's it. Thing is, what you saw in this movie is still a very glossy tale. I have been dealing with divorce cases for over 5 years and even at its nastiest, the divorce proceedings depicted in this movie are far from the nightmare it actually is in real life. Also what we see here on the screen are hilariously privileged, spoiled people who even at their worst don't come close to what actual people who have other problems in their life, unlike these two, do and say.

A lot has been said about the explosive argument scene but it's really not that bad. Charlie immediately apologizes to Nicole, who accepts his apology. Also if you ever saw Carmela and Tony fight in The Sopranos' episode Whitecaps, Driver and Johannson's acting and Baumbach's writing will be underwhelming to you. In fact, I thought the earlier argument between the two, over the phone when Nicole is at the Halloween party dressed up like David Bowie, was much better and realistic. This long argument everyone keeps talking about is overtly rehearsed, apparently everything there was scripted. It felt like theater, not real life and I think the latter was Baumbach's goal here, so for me he failed in achieving this goal.
A lot of this feels sensationalized but it's all right, because after all it is a movie. Also the characters we are dealing with are rich, privileged artistic types. I have very little empathy for people like that, who guide their life according to their whims and childish dreams. I loved how they are both so clueless to the law and legal proceedings and think they will just get whatever they want and how they want it with lawyers immediately having to explain to them there are rules and laws to follow. There is no obligation to get married and since entering that union has consequences, you can't just expect it to be dissolved immediately because that's something you suddenly want. I laughed so hard when Charlie thought he can simply not file an answer to Nicole's lawsuit and things will go the way he wants. In fact let me tell you, American law is hilariously lenient here. Where I practice, giving him extension would not be allowed without a good cause, he would lose, the movie would be over.

Still, I didn't dislike Charlie or Nicole and the wonderful writing kept me engaged. The actors did a great job to make their characters somewhat likable, especially Driver. Johansson's horrific off screen antics, such as her supporting Woody Allen, keep me for ever having sympathy for any of her characters but her performance was good enough for me not to be actively distracted by what kind of a person she is off screen. Driver is excellent and delivers one of the year's best performances, making Charlie someone we sometimes root for even thought he is so arrogant, selfish and did stupid things. Charlie cheated on Nicole, so it should be easy right? We should be taking Nicole's side. But with Johansson playing her, I did not.
The supporting cast is excellent. Ray Liotta shows up as a cutthroat lawyer and his showdown in the courtroom with him exchanging arguments with Laura Dern, who plays Nicole's lawyer, was  so fantastic This isn't what legal proceedings look like where I practice, it's never argumentative like that, so it was entertaining to watch for me. Dern gets one of the film's best scenes where she delivers a powerful, show-stopping monologue about women being held to a different standard than men. It's so well written and reflects the painful truth. I loved that they had the moment where she tells Nicole not to admit to drinking in her interview. It's exactly like that. The court looks different at a woman who drinks as opposed to a man, hell, not just the court, but the whole society. We have to be perfect, they get to do whatever the fuck they want.

But Dern also does things throughout that are so, so good, such like her sitting next to Nicole and comforting her during their first meeting but doing so in such a way that is overtly theatrical and you never forget that this isn't Nicole's friend, this is a lawyer and getting the clients to hire her is her job. And can we talk about the way she took that jacket off in the courtroom as the means to distract the men in the room? That was outstanding. Dern will not be my winner, not when Rebecca Ferguson did what she did in Doctor Sleep, but she was terrific.
Then there's Alan Alda, who is always such a warm, wonderful presence, as the only lawyer in the movie who sees Charlie and Nicole as actual people. I liked that the film didn't spend too much time praising him for it. It's not the lawyer's job to see the people, it's the lawyer's job to see the case and use whatever they can to the client's advantage. I also liked how unceremoniously he disappeared from the movie, it does happen, parties do change their lawyers and just like that they are simply gone from the case.

I see some complaints about Martha Kelly's performance of the evaluator, but I thought she was great. If you deal with those things long enough, you become numb to them. I cry during most movies and I didn't here because I deal with these situations most of the time in my job. And evaluator's job is very odd - they walk into someone's life and have to judge them as a parent based on just few hours spent there. It's a very weird and surreal situation and the film nailed it and pushed it even further with hilarious way the whole visit ended.
I really appreciated how much warmth and humor was here, a lot of it thanks to Merritt Wever, who plays Nicole's sister, and Julie Hagerty, who plays Nicole's mom. There is a perfect balance here between the drama and the comedy and between what's real (the arguments the lawyers use and the way something Charlie mentions about Nicole's drinking to his lawyer ending up being used in the courtroom - this is something that would 100% happen in real life) and what's heightened.

At this time this is the best movie of 2019 for me and one that will stand the test of time. Because as sure at is that people fall in love, it's also sure that they are weak, selfish and most of the time the love they once felt fades. So this film will always be something that is relatable to people.

If only everyone out there had the means and resources that Charlie and Nicole had and a divorce that was this civil.
96/100
(USA, 136 min, 2019)
Plot: Noah Baumbach's incisive and compassionate look at a marriage breaking up and a family staying together.
Director: Noah Baumbach
Writer: Noah Baumbach
Stars: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern