Marriage Story
I think “Marriage Story” is the first of Noah Baumbach’s films that I’ve seen that I truly connected with. The characters of Charlie and Nicole, played by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, feel like honest individuals rather than broad and quirky archetypes, which is one thing I had an issue with when it came to “The Squid and the Whale,” wherein Baumbach was writing about his own parent’s divorce. This is another film about divorce, but this is written from the perspective of someone who’s gone through divorce themselves, and it’s as painfully true a film on the subject as we’ve seen.
The film begins with Charlie and Nicole each telling us about their feelings for one another in monologue, as images of their life together play. In a few minutes, we are shown who these characters are, and what their relationship to the other are in some of the most precise character development I’ve seen in a film. What we are hearing are letters about the other a mediator has asked them to write; they are in the opening stages of separating, leading them to a divorce. They are a creative couple living in New York with their 8-year-old son, Henry (Azhy Robertson)- he directs a theatre company, she is his leading lady and muse- but she is moving out to LA to film a pilot, and taking Henry with her. The expectation on Charlie’s end is that it is just to see whether the show goes to series, and if so, her work on it, but the more he has to make his way out there, and especially after she hires a lawyer (Laura Dern) for the divorce proceedings, the more trapped he feels by a situation he seems to have no control over. She is making the terms with her lawyer, and it feels like he has no power to get anything he wants. What started out as what they hoped would be an amicable divorce quickly becomes ugly, quickly.
To score this film, Baumbach has enlisted Randy Newman, and what I find so fantastic about the work he does in this film is how recognizably Newman it is- especially thinking of his score for Ron Howard’s “Parenthood”- but how strikingly dramatic and emotional it is. We often associate him with comedy and warmth, but this has some pain to it that break your heart. Granted, he’s had moments in other scores that have done the same, but in, say, the “Toy Story” scores he is ultimately working from stories that will turn out alright in the end. Baumbach has no such illusions, although I will admit, he makes the film enjoyable to watch when it doesn’t cut like a knife.
We ultimately want to see all three of these characters- Charlie, Nicole and Henry- happy and content, and that’s an important point in Baumbach’s screenplay. Henry’s happiness is especially important, because in real-life divorce, that can be the thing that gets forgotten, especially if the parents are trying for something amicable, but it turns contentious for one reason or another. I feel as though we are supposed to connect more with Charlie in this story, but it’s not only hard to see Nicole as the villain (even when she seems to be trapping Charlie into getting her way when Dern’s lawyer gets involved), but also hard to see Charlie as a viable “better option” for Henry. He’s so determined to do what he can to get them back to New York, so he can continue his work there, that he loses sight that all of this is about Henry’s well-being, not his. And yes, it appears as though Nicole is trying to manipulate the situation in her favor with Henry, but even if she didn’t seem to be bribing him, it’s hard not to see that her situation is what’s best for him over what Charlie can offer him. It’s a credit to Baumbach that he allows us to see that clearly, but still gets us to empathize with Charlie.
The acting is probably what elevates “Marriage Story” as much as anything, especially that done by Driver and Johansson. There is great support by Dern, Ray Liotta, Alan Alda and especially Julie Hagerty as Nicole’s mother, but Driver and Johansson make us feel every moment of this film. We see the de-evolution of the situation into a contentious one, culminating in a heartbreaking fight that is recognizable by anyone who has ever had a blow-out verbal brawl with their significant other, or another loved one, that gets to a point where exhaustion leads you to still find room for grace, even if the other person doesn’t deserve it. It’s one of the best scenes of the year, and a high-water mark for these actors, as well as the filmmaker who directed them in it. “Marriage Story” takes a piece out of you.
