Yay or Nay?: Marriage Story (Film)

A very happy Easter to everyone! Hopefully, this situation with COVID ends soon so we can all get back to normal. However, since things are still up in the air, Olga has been suggesting different things for me to watch. One of these things was the Oscar-acclaimed nomination that Olga reviewed back in early February (which you can read here), Marriage Story. Since I could not visit my family this year because of the quarantine, my family and I chose to watch this after decorating our eggs for this year. It’s not our usual routine, but it was enjoyable none the less.

Even more so, I loved Marriage Story, Olga knows exactly the types of movies I like. It was really quite thought-provoking and, although a slow-burn, very engaging (and that’s not just because Adam Driver is in it, who is one of my favourite actors!). Also Laura Dern kicks ass in this movie, and there are some other familiar names: Ray Liotta and Alan Alda (Hawk-eye from M*A*S*H*, just so you know) to name a few. It’s a rather lengthy film, clocking in at 2 hours and 16 minutes, and to me, is the first movie based off of stage-play film that felt like it was still a stage-play while keeping in time with the nature of the film medium. This happens to be rare when transposing mediums, in my experience. 

THE STORY

Very simply, the story follows a successful New York broadway director named Charlie Barber and his actress wife, Nicole, as they go through a grueling coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them both to their creative—and personal—extremes. 

Now, as with most plays, the drama is a lot more complex than that. It starts off with miscommunication in both parties for what they want, and at its core, becomes a fight for freedom to keep their son both involved in each other’s lives. 

Nicole wants the freedom to be able to live her own life, make her own choices, and have creative freedom and control with her acting (and later, directing) career that her marriage wouldn’t allow. This requires her to move back to her hometown of Los Angeles to shoot a pilot episode of a television drama, and back with her family and close relatives. 

Charlie, who directs and owns a theatre company that he started has had one of his plays (which Nicole stars in) go to broadway. Throughout the divorce, he has expectations that Nicole will come back to New York to be near the company, and provide a somewhat normal life for their son (who has moved with her to Los Angeles for the time being). This divorce, to him, is pretty much sewn up. It will be a quiet, sorted out affair that they’re both on the same page about. Instead, he’s surprised to find out that upon visiting them in Los Angeles, he’s not only being served with divorce papers but that these expectations may not come to fruition. At the worst, he discovers he’s at risk of losing custody of his son, as well as the theatre company. 

The film is really driven by each character’s perspective, a collection of misunderstandings that were left untouched bubbling to the surface, and intensified by the two (hard-ass, but also badass) family lawyers Jay Marotta and Nora Fanshawe. The result? A really well-done and well-told story that peers into the realities of divorce, family, and personal sacrifice. 

MY THOUGHTS

So, as well done as the story is, so is the film. The acting (especially Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver) is phenomenal. There’s a couple scenes that if they didn’t win Oscars, they should’ve. Every scene is done believably, and this is acting at its finest. The cast makes these characters come to life on the screen. This is what really steals the show— the characters are not only relatable in the struggles they face, of which you get to see both sides of the relationship, but they’re made real by their actors, who seemed to have put a little extra of themselves into the characters (and it shows). These are real people, real discussions, and a real story. The only really negative thing I have to say about the film itself is that it still seemed by the end that both Nicole and Charlie still harbored feelings for one another, even after the divorce was through and done. It didn’t seem like either of them were happy with the result— which is thought-provoking in itself if that was what the film was going for. 

I especially appreciated the idea, as well, that it wasn’t just about protecting their child. Although this is the focus, and much of the cause in the “divorce drama”, cue Laura Dern’s fucking amazing speech here on motherhood ideologies, it was mostly about both Charlie and Nicole coming to terms with the issues that plagued their marriage that they never got to say, and realizing that they were, in fact, not on the same page, ever. It’s a real look into the modern marriage dynamic (at least in my opinion), and I found myself sympathizing with both sides (rather than just one). There is no “right” or “wrong” view in each of these characters, but a perspective being presented, and clashing up with another’s in this film. 

MY RATING

So, I could say a lot more about this film, but it’s amazing. While you’re quarantined up, why not launch it on Netflix? It’s a great thinker of a movie, and really gives you insight into modern marriage. 

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 Stars)

~Meghan