The perfect medicine for those who want life to be like the movies is a movie that's like life

Rating: 8/10 (9 December 2019)

Netflix's Marriage Story came to me at a funny time in my life and I will disclose no more personal facts than that. It is the first Noah Baumbach project I have given my full attention - unless we count the Wes Anderson films he's worked on, as well as, of course, Madagascar 3 - and I gather it is a semi-autobiographical tale about how love stories may end. Not with fireworks, but with divorce papers, custody battles, and costly meetings where, sometimes, the two partners are truly taught to hate each other. This, according to Tim Grierson, is what Baumbach tells us of the "Divorce-Industrial Complex".
This is the sort of movie that many will berate in that it is insufficiently glamorous and escapist, the way movie-films "should be" (it features hot celebs in unflattering, very human scenarios). But I'd say the perfect medicine for those who want life to be like the movies is a movie that's like life. Or at least, how life may turn out if two people fail in their devotion, or are told that they did; to quote Grierson, "the happiest people in this movie are the divorce attorneys".
Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are undoubtedly the biggest selling point of the project, knocking it out of the park as stage director Charles and his actress wife Nicole, going through a messy divorce that forces them to travel coast-to-coast. They are surrounded by the likes of Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, and even Wallace Shawn for a little while. All of these legends do well enough that I routinely forgot I was watching a film, rather than a documented ordeal.
Particularly noteworthy, however, is the actor playing the couple's son. Too often, unconvincing child performers are dismissed as "just kids", ergo we shouldn't complain that they aren't as engaging or engaged as the adult actors - many of them veterans, to boot. Azhy Robertson comes close, however. We shouldn't ignore films like this, just as we shouldn't ignore Room and Looper.
marriage storeThe movie may sound dispiriting and sad as I have described it (for some, this will be therapeutic and remind them that they're not alone), but be aware that it treats a difficult scenario with a certain sense of humor. Another ostensibly depressing film I saw this year was About Endlessness, by the great Swedish auteur Roy Andersson, which was about a larger number of upsetting aspects of human life.
All the same, it was technically a comedy; not pointing and laughing at the subjects, but having a sense of humor about the harsh parts of existence. Baumbach, with his commentary on divorce agencies and his lifelike characters, is ultimately more serious than Roy Andersson, although we're still permitted to laugh about the messiness of it all, the way the central couple one day might. Marriage Story affirms that a romantic comedy can be more - so very much more - than the inoffensive pop entertainment we often assume rom-coms ought to be.
Much like The Irishman, this is another acclaimed film to get the "limited theatrical run followed by immediate Netflix release" treatment, further legitimizing the trend-spotting paper I wrote on the future of cinema this spring. More and more respected filmmakers are taking streaming seriously (see also Roma and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs of last year's Oscar Bait season), but I certainly believe Marvel premiere events will keep certain film theatres alive. Some theatres might also survive due to having screenings of old classics for devoted cinephiles to attend, but those types might find a substitute in the Criterion Channel.
Of course, it's also nice that instant online release allows me to catch more of the well-liked movies in a year and then run my mouth about them to no-one in particular. I think we'll see Baumbach at the Oscars.