Following an Unstable Marriage, Divorce Looms Over a Wife and Husband

Scarlett Johansson, Azhy Robertson, and Adam Driver in
"Marriage Story"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

Writer-director Noah Baumbach’s comedy-drama, “Marriage Story,” begins on the most bittersweet note that’s possible.  His two main characters are in the midst of separation, and they narrate to us what they admire in each other, with each taking around five minutes to go in-depth about their spouse.  This is a scene that’s both romantic and heartbreaking because you know that they’re preparing for a divorce, but there’s so much that they like about each other, that you can’t understand why they would ever want to be apart.

Baumbach’s story gets more turbulent from there as he explores the crumbling of a relationship in a film that manages the impressive accomplishment of being both hilarious and emotionally brutal.

The story follows theater actress Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and theater director Charlie (Adam Driver) as they go through a coast-to-coast divorce that soon exposes all of the pain that has built up over time.

Johansson’s performance makes you sympathize with her character because of her need to break away from Charlie in order to have the career that she could never have with him, but it’s made all of the more heartrending because you can see that, despite wanting to leave him, she still finds it somewhat difficult to do so because of the life that they have built.  There’s a scene within the first act of the film where Nicole meets her lawyer (Laura Dern), and she’s asked to describe her reasoning for the divorce.  This leads to an extended monologue that’s done in a long take (thanks to cinematography by Robbie Ryan) with the camera staying on Nicole as she vents about what brought her to the point of choosing to end her marriage.  The passion with which Johansson spills her soul makes you hang onto her every word as she brings this cinematic confessional to poignant life, allowing us into her mind as we learn about what’s been troubling her all of this time.

Driver delivers a terrific deal of urgency to his performance as his character faces the possibility of losing his son (Azhy Robertson) to Nicole gaining full custody.  Although you’re meant to be upset with him for neglecting Nicole’s wishes throughout the years, you still can’t help but feel sorry for him as he shows how distraught he would be if his son was taken out of his life.  It’s a performance that’s every bit as distressing as Johansson’s, showing Charlie as he becomes at a loss of how to handle the legal situations and borders on a panic as he tries to gain some control over the issue.  Your heart begins to hammer as he’s faced with one setback after another, and Driver is able to elicit the intense worry in his character’s demeanor as the time-sensitive aspects an unexpectedness of the divorce start to have his life spin out of control.

Despite their characters wanting to separate, Johansson and Driver make us believe that there’s still a little bit of love between them.  The scenes that they share simmer with tension and thoughts that are still left unconfessed, making you wonder what they will say next to each other.  However, even when they’re not in the same scene, it still feels like the other is there because of how much they linger on each other’s mind, and that’s the highest of testaments as to the solid nature of Johansson and Driver’s chemistry.

This film comes equipped with a wonderful supporting cast, such as Robertson as Nicole and Charlie’s son; Alan Alda as Charlie’s reassuring lawyer; Ray Liotta as Charlie’s more abrasive lawyer; Julie Hagerty as Nicole’s peppy mother; and Merrit Wever as Nicole’s overanxious sister.  However, the top supporting player is Dern as Nicole’s lawyer, an individual who will do whatever she can to make sure that Nicole wins the case.  It’s a performance that’s enjoyably malicious, one where you can see that Dern intends to make us loathe her character as much as possible, and she accomplishes that without flaw and offers some terrific laughs.

The screenplay by Baumbach is drawn from his own experiences with divorce, and we can see how much this aspect of his life has impacted him as he takes us into the ruthlessness that both parties bring out when going through a separation.  We’re given scenes where they’re apart, which allows us to see how they cope without each other, and then there are the scenes where they’re together, where those interactions have them trying to be civil, but also peppering those interactions with understated hostility.  Their time together during the divorce process culminates in an explosive scene where Nicole and Charlie bear all of their innermost feelings towards each other, leading to a sequence that’s not only full of catharsis, but also becomes one of this year’s most devastating movie scenes.

Although this film’s premise may seem rather thin on the surface, don't let that fool you in the slightest because there’s a lot that’s at stake between the two main characters as their divorce procedure becomes more and more challenging.  Baumbach is always bringing us further into Nicole and Charlie’s separation, and as he does so, his direction has us experience the anguish through which Nicole and Charlie are traversing.  As they go through the separation process, none of the scenes feel repetitive in terms of them not getting along because Baumbach does unforgettable work in displaying the complexities of the scenario, and it gets to the point where you begin to break out in a sweat because of how contentious the process becomes.  However, in the middle of all of this, he also shows the bits of tenderness that still exist in Nicole and Charlie’s relationship, making you feel that, even if they separate, they will still come out of it with some level of respect between them.

“Marriage Story” isn’t just about divorce, but about the affection that Nicole and Charlie had, and still might have for each other, making this an unconventional love story about how hard it is to give up that love. 

Grade: A