A review of the new, award-winning film “Marriage Story”
This is the fifth film that I have seen written and directed by Noah Baumbach, so I know to expect something different in terms of both subject and style, and “Marriage Story” is his best work to date. In spite of the title, it is essentially a story of divorce but it cleverly interweaves the story of the marriage so that, in the end, it is a kind of love story.
The couple in question are brilliant theatre director Charlie and talented actress Nicole and Adam Driver – who has now worked with Baumbach four times – and Scarlett Johansson are simply brilliant in these leading roles. One particularly heart-breaking scene has them tearing into each other in a laceration reminiscent of “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolf?”
What makes the divorce so difficult is the custody battle over their eight year old son Henry and one cannot help recalling the film “Kramer vs Kramer” of 40 years ago. What makes the divorce so bitter is the combative role of the lawyers: Alan Alda and Ray Liotta are impressive as the good cop/bad cop pair battling for Charlie, while Laura Dern is superb as counsel for Nicole with a wonderful mini-speech about the Virgin Mary.
An important feature of the storytelling is that Baumbach does not take sides as regards either the couple or their advisers but presents both perspectives in this tragedy.
I saw “Marriage Story” at London’s British Film Institute where it was followed by a question and answer with director Noah Baumbach and producer David Heyman. Baumbach underlined how his movie represents diverse genres since, at different points, it is a court procedural, a rom-com, a musical, and a screball comedy. Heyman explained that the funding of the film by Netflix had enabled such an independent work to be made with a theatrical release as well as availability through streaming.
What Baumbach did not volunteer and nobody asked him was just how autobiographical is this work. In 2013, he concluded three years of divorce proceedings with actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, the mother of his (first) son. Johansson was actually going through a divorce when she was offered the role and Dern has her own experience of divorce.
They are not the only ones. Up to half of marriages in the developed world end in divorce. Sadly I have had experience of three divorces – that of my parents and two of my own – and I myself was the subject of a custody battle at the same age as Henry, so I found the film especially resonant. But, whether you have or have not been through a divorce yourself, you will not fail to be moved by Baumbach’s powerful and poignant storytelling.