Showbusiness people are narcissistic

Rating: 1/10 (17 December 2019)

Charlie and Nicole (Driver and Johansson) are a thirty-something, director-actor, couple with a young son. Charlie is a NY lover, Nicole is from LA and allegedly put her movie career on hold when she moved to NY to work for hubby Charlie's theatrical productions.
The couple is going through a rough patch, when after ten years in NY, Nicole receives an offer to star in a TV pilot and moves back to LA, with her mum and sister, bringing son Henry with her. Nicole wants a divorce ASAP, while Charlie still thinks they are getting back together and does not catch the drift until he is served papers.
Enter divorce lawyers, in the shape of obnoxious Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern), working for Nicole, while Charlie hires - in succession - two lawyers with different degrees of aggressiveness (and hourly fees).
What we have here is two highly narcissistic people, who want to pursue their careers and find that family gets in their way. Nicole wants to do more than acting, but Charlie never allowed her to direct. With divorce comes the freedom to do so, because what the world needs is yet another director - what a shame would have been for humankind if Nicole missed her chance.
On the other hand, Charlie, described as self-involved, seems quite lethargic in most situations, especially when spending "quality time" with brat - I mean, beloved son - Henry. That kid freaked me out, he looks a lot like the one in The Shining.
Johansson gets lots of monologues, which seem to go on forever. Driver, an actor whose appeal always escaped me, gives another sleepwalking performance. Dern is OTT aggressive, the stereotype lawyer you love to hate. Julie Hagerty, as Nicole's mother plays borderline crazy and she's as annoying as most of the main cast. It does not help that both Nicole (with mummy) and Charlie break into cringe-worth long songs, stretching the running time over 2 hours. I started checking my watch about half way...
Overlong and self-indulgent, this uneven mix of "Annie Hall" and "Kramer vs. Kramer", is still likely to find a large audience in the shape of anybody involved with a divorce (half of the US population?)