Marriage Story (2019)
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Marriage Story Movie Review
Marriage Story is a 2019 drama film directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver. It’s a very good, but sadly disappointing movie.
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“Criminal lawyers see bad people at their best,
divorce lawyers see good people at their worst“
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It follows a realistic, detailed depiction of one divorce through all of the legal procedures, and for once it takes both the husband’s and the wife’s side as it presents them both as innocent and as culpable in this situation. The movie has a clever script, and per usual very sophisticated dialogue from Baumbach with some truly phenomenal discussions and arguments.
I loved how we got to see the selfishness and a lack of understanding from both sides, and how one more honest conversation could have fixed their marriage, but just as in real life, that is easier said than done, and most issues remain unsaid until it is too late.
And when that scene arrives, you expect it. But I did not expect how raw and powerful their argument would be, and how long it lasted, and how disgusting and horrible it was. That argument is the most realistic part of the movie as this is how real people behave in real life when they are angry, the build-up is great and the emotion as well as acting are amazing. It’s the only truly terrific part in the movie.
So what are the problems I’ve had with the film overall? They are twofold. One is the abundance of acting scenes. They are both actors which is a cliché in and of itself, but the fact that we get to see so many of their scenes and rehearsals really ground those moments to a halt. They were unnecessary and they prolonged the movie to a needlessly long runtime.
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Another, more annoying issue is the entire first act. The first half an hour or so is very mediocre, and honestly even annoying. It had way too much narration in it, and although it paid off later on emotionally speaking, it still made the film seem like a book. It wasn’t cinematic enough as films should show, not tell. This particular picture told way too often unfortunately.
The acting is stupendous, there is no doubt about it. Adam Driver is fantastic as he always is. He is such a terrific, very nuanced actor and all of his scenes here are believable, especially the more comedic ones where he excelled the most. The emotional scenes are great too. But Scarlett Johansson herself has never been better than she was here. Her acting is raw, real and powerful, and it took me by surprise. I hope she now starts getting more serious roles.
As for the other actors, both Ray Liotta and Alan Alda are very memorable in their roles, but it is Laura Dern who is very amusing in her amazingly thought-out manipulations. She is so believable as this badass lawyer, and also quite funny at times with some great lines of dialogue. And I also loved Nicole’s mother who was also immensely funny.
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Yes, Marriage Story has good humor, especially good in that evaluation of Charlie sequence which was brilliantly crafted on every level, but it is mostly a serious, heartbreaking drama in its heightened, very much felt emotion, especially in the third act. The dialogue is great, and the film is meticulously detailed in its portrayal of divorce legally speaking. I just wish that the entire film was as great as some of its parts clearly are.
Laura Dern is very memorable and fun in Marriage Story whereas Adam Driver is reliably fantastic and Scarlett Johansson herself has never been better than she is here. The film also has terrific dialogue, a meticulous depiction of divorce in legal terms and it’s quite emotionally exhilarating. The argument scene is amazing in its entirety. Unfortunately, the whole film isn’t as great with the first act being rather annoying in its extensive narration, and the acting scenes are thoroughly unnecessary. Thus, it’s a very good movie, but I expected much greater things from it, resulting in the biggest letdown of the year for me personally.
