Marriage Story (2019) - 8.6

Rating: 9/10 (15 December 2019)

Marriage Story (2019) - 8.6
Act 1 - 8.5
Act 2 - 8.3
Act 3 - 9.0

Great film about the struggles of marriage and divorce and the tolls it can take on a family emotionally and financially
Two of the best performances of the year from Driver and Johansson, very good supporting performances around them
Can always feel the love between our two leads even with what they are going through
Film is emotionally heavy but still remains quite funny from time to time
Film is shot well and written so real and powerfully
So many incredible and stand out scenes that I will take away from the film
Would make the film a bit shorter but cutting out a few scenes as the film does drag in some areas
One of the best films of the year that everyone should see
Love the opening with the film with the reading of the letters instantly learning us know who these characters are and that their is live between them
Then we instantly see they are separating and displayed very well on subway shot
Charlie is a theater director and Nicole is an actress and they have a young son together names Henry and they live in NY
Nicole moves out to LA from to be in a TV show with Henry
Meets Laura Dern who becomes Nicole's lawyer even though they talked about doing the divorce without lawyers
Nicole doesn't want to hurt Charlie and wants to remain friends
Nicole felt herself getting smaller and was only fulfilling Charlie's dream and not her own, needs to do her own thing
Incredibly long one shot scene talking to her lawyer about everything is amazing and well done
Her family loves Charlie and there is a very funny scene in the kitchen
Charlie shows up to moms house and he has received a McArthur grant and Nicole is trying to serve him with divorce papers
Nicole's mom is hilarious and amazing
Whole sequence with Charlie's arrival in the kitchen is amazing
Charlie's lawyer seems nice and caring and wants what is best for Henry just like the parents
Henry is struggling with the change of going between parents
Nicole is starting to shut Charlie out of her and their sons lives
Henry tells dad that he likes LA better
Nicole finds out Charlie had sex when he starting sleeping in the couch with one of the people that work at the theater
This makes Nicole angry and starts to use her lawyer more
Lawyer mediation scene is very interesting
Does feel like Kramer v Kramer
Shows both sides of the story
Charlie's lawyer tells him to settle today as he thinks Nicole will win and court just make things more expensive
Charlie gives in but doesn't want to lose his son and he will stay in LA and travel to NY
Closing gate door scene really great showing they both care
Go to court to make divorce official and we see his new lawyer Jay show up ruining their deal
Sad choice to take it to court on Charlie's part
Shows how divorce lawyers just make things worse for the family and suck out every penny that both parties have, terrible things
Both still ok talking to each other outside of court but doesn't translate when lawyers are present
Shot simply and well, fits the scene and lets them be simple
Fight scene at Charlie's place is heart wrenching and great, incredible scene
Fight scene was emotional but occasionally funny, next level stuff, best scene of the film
Laura Dern scene about fathers is great
Movie can get heavy and still can be funny
Lady watching Charlie and son is quite strange and funny
Charlie and Nicole decide to settle and Henry will remain in LA
Nice callbacks to early in the film especially with how the film opens with everything nice about each other and then the fight with everything they hate about each other
Could have cut out some scenes to get to the meat faster like Adam and and Scarletts singing scenes
Nicole's life is going great and has a new boyfriend
Scene where Henry is reading moms letter from beginning of film and then Charlie starts to read it is beautiful
Film ends at Halloween of next year showing they are in better places and can make things work between the two and there will always be love there
A few down moments that also could have been shortened to keep pace and plot moving