More Neil Simon than Bergman, or even Woody Allen

Rating: 3/10 (6 October 2019)

Seen 10/07/19 at the NYFF.
As with other Baumbach films, "Marriage Story" is long on talk and short on cinema, which makes it a strange choice for a featured spot in this year's NY Film Festival, especially since it is the second film on the main slate about a director, in this case a theatre director instead of a filmmaker, but still... I, for one, have limited tolerance for films or plays about directors on novels about novelists, etc. These have a higher burden than others to meet in convincing me that I should care about them. In the case of this year's film director's film about, very transparently, himself, Pedro AlmodÃ³var's "Pain and Passion" passes the test with ease, as it is glorious cinema. "Marriage Story", though, is more Neil Simon that Bergman (despite the aspirational allusion in the title and in a brief visual shout-out to "Scenes From a Marriage"), or even Woody Allen, who is just as wordy but makes better cinema, at least in his older and better films. With its sorta jokey NY/LA rivalry theme, and in certain LA frames, "Annie Hall" also appears to be evoked here, but the mere mention of these films highlights the weakness of this one.
There is some, passing enjoyment to be had. Scarlett Johansson is, as always, radiant and holds the screen in ways that few of today's female leads can do - she needs to find directors who can make more of that. Laura Dern turns in a stellar performance as a vicious divorce lawyer camouflaged in California unctuousness, and there are some fine cameos from Roy Liotta, Alan Alda, the great Wallace Shawn, and others. (On the other hand, Johansson's husband/foil, Adam Driver, is as bland and uninteresting to watch while he forces himself to emote as anyone I've seen lately this side of a TV sitcom.) But Baumbach remains firmly within his milieu of affluent, if not wealthy, Brooklyn and LA showbiz people and their neuroses. It's all very narcissistic and more than a little contrived -- as I say, this is more theatre, with its elborate, paced plotting intended as build-up to the leads' Big Scene, which here tears up the scenery - literally - to no great effect.
Baubach in fact makes what I'm sure is an unforced error in a courtroom scene where, for the first time, ordinary (and diverse) Angelinos are seen waiting their turn before a judge, who makes a welcome comment to the effect that he is adjourning the case around which the film revolves as there are plenty of people with far fewer resources awaiting their turn. Indeed. And so the inevitable question arises: why, in 2019, should we care about these particular white, privileged, affluent, undoubtedly smart, but politically and socially obtuse people as they go through the predictable phases in the break-up of a marriage whose reality was never very convincing to begin with? Why should we spend our time watching what amounts to a modernized version of an old-fashioned drawing-room comedy, updated to take account certain contemporary sensibilities, particularly of the feminist sort?
Like many of the other films shown this year NYFF (and of many more that are not), the main producers here are Netflix, which is rapidly carving out a place for itself in American cinema comparable to that played by the Canal+ cable network in France. Though its support to quality cinema is welcome (Scorsese's "The Irishman", but also documentaries like the terrific "An American Factory"...), there must be concern about how long it will allow its productions to run in proper cinemas before they disappear into the streaming ether. In most cases, that would be a huge loss for potential viewers, as films like these demand to be seen on a big screen. In the case of "Marriage Story", though, there will be little loss: it contains so little that is gripping from a cinematic point-of-view that it will do just fine on a flat screen on an iPhone.
If you do watch this film, try to imagine what would be left if you turned off the dialogue. It would almost certainly become clear that you're dealing with filmed theatre, not cinema. A single image from the following night's NYFF feature, Joon-Ho Boong's breathtaking "Parasite" is worth 10,000 of this dreary film's many, many words.