Well-acted but meh otherwise

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2019)

I give it a 5 for the movie but the acting makes me go to 7. This is not Kramer v Kramer for a new generation. In terms of family drama, it's not Ordinary People either. By far. Driver is deservedly the talk of the film for an amazing performance, and indeed, everyone does fine work. But, for me, I didn't like either of them. They're both selfish, self-indulgent, narcissists who chose the right profession for that personality. ScarJo is very good, but a raving B. Toward the middle, we get some perspective to supposedly justify a little of her anger and why she's tired of suppressing what she wants for him, but not so much. I judged her as a mother breaking up a family when she was not in a marriage that needed to end with people who loved each other.
***(SPOILERISH) *** It was infuriating to have him forced into paying for bicoastal living, associated travel costs, pulling a kid out of school, making a father commute like that cross country to spend time with his kid plus try to work, , the money wasted on legal fees- all for what? A good mother would have saved that money for her child's education and not squander it. We never got to see why therapy didn't work for them, did he reject giving her the spotlight for a while to allow her to feel more fulfilled? It seemed like it should've been doable. That's what made it harder to watch- her anger was not justifiable in my judgment and breaking up her family didn't seem justifiable. Moreover, her character ticks off every misogynistic stereotype of a woman- a shrew, malcontent, raging raving and impossible to make happy. I know there are those who will say she felt more fulfilled so that was worth it, near her looney family, but I think she's someone who 2 years later would be unhappy again in CA, just as she was before she met him. One of those who will always be dissatisfied. So it's hard to watch a movie, a real downer of one at that, about people who aren't that likable, although he was more sympathetic than she. Again, Ordinary People, Kramer, Terms of Endearment to name a few, all have people you care about and someone sympathetic to root for. Great performances all around here, though.