Individual Performances Carry The Day

Rating: 7/10 (22 December 2019)

When I first saw the trailer for "Marriage Story", I was intrigued by the concept and cast. When it started gaining buzz and racking up award nominations in droves, I knew it was something I was going to see. While there were certain parts of the film I enjoyed very much, overall I found it slightly lacking in one key area: drawing real, visceral emotion out of the viewer.
For a very basic overview, "Marriage Story" is a tale about Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole (Scarlett Johansson), a married couple in the beginning stages of separation/divorce. Not wanting to make things too messy for son Henry (Azhy Robertson), Charlie & Nicole want to keep things civil--until the lawyers get involved, drawing some passion out of the all sides.
Easily the best part of this film for me was the acting from Driver and Johansson. They both give performances that are very much award-worthy and complement each other perfectly. At one point, Driver absolutely brings down the house with his rendition of "Being Alive", while Johansson is a wonder to watch slowly unfurl her emotions as the movie progresses. I'd have no problem with either of them taking home some hardware during awards season.
The problem I had with this film, however, is that it seemed like every time it looked to be kicking into a high emotional gear, something would happen to stop that momentum in its tracks. The lawyers (played by Laura Dern, Alan Alda, & Ray Liotta) are the most egregious examples of this, as those scenes constituted easily my least favorite ones of the whole experience. They sort of turn the proceedings into "Divorce Story" rather than "Marriage Story", which throws things off track.
To me, the best scenes in the movie are when Driver and Johansson simple co-exist on screen together. They might end up talking very calmly with each other at first, but then the escalation continues and by the end they are screaming in frustration/rage. These are the types of scenes that win awards. Like I said, it's too bad that momentum kept getting interrupted.
For whatever reason, it just felt like this film was about a half-step "off" for me the whole way. Like all the ingredients were there for it to be really emotional, but rarely did they coalesce properly and actually do so. Like I said, the acting in the piece should be rewarded handsomely, but in terms of the film/plot as a whole, I can't quite put this one into my upper echelon.