a Woody Allen Film not made by Woody Allen

Rating: 9/10 (11 January 2020)

A good divorce film provides enough suspense for all the audience, married or unmarried. Marriage Story not only keeps you hooked until the end to see how the story of two used-to-be love birds unfold, but also it is the lead actors, Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, taking your breath away. After all, it is more of a two-character study film rather than a plot-driven one.
Inspired by director Noah Baumbach's personal divorce story from screen star Jennifer Leigh in 2013 and also his parents' , Marriage Story has artistic passion for expression flowing in its blood. Noah Baumbach had proved his mastery in Frances Ha; a film very much inspired by Woody Allen. Storytelling, dialogue, comedy yet melancholy feeling, and use of music is like Woody Allen's earlier films. He has borrowed elements of Woody Allen's cinema once again and added his own personal touch to it in Marriage Story. A story which laughs you out, makes you cry and puts you in the dilemma of which side to take; Nicole or Charlie. This very unbiased narrative is what makes Marriage Story truly distinct from other divorce films.
Scarlett Johansson masterfully depicts Nicole, a one-time movie actor longing to get a name for herself and surpassing his successful Broadway director husband. She constantly speaks of Charlie's workaholism and inattention to her, one problem that is unfortunately more told rather than shown.Nicole's career arc and her transform from a mediocre theater actor to a director in Hollywood after the divorce, is the feminist theme of the film. Just like which side to take in terms of husband or wife, you are in the very dilemma of which actor performed on a greater level. Undisputedly, Marriage Story is the film that both Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson have performed their career-best. Even better than Blackkklansman for Adam driver and Under The Skin for Scarlett Johansson. Charlie, played by Adam Driver, is the neat, ambitious and sweet husband every woman craves for.Unsurprisingly Nicole's family loves him. But even him ends up cheating his wife. After all, he is the thriving director in broadway, everyone wants to sleep with him. In the terrific fight sequence taking place in Charlie's apartment in LA, Charlie personally tells Nicole that he could've slept with any woman he wanted after his success but because of his loyalty to her, he did not.A loyalty he did not keep after having affairs with his production designer Marry Ann.
Without knowing what she is walking herself into, Nicole naively goes to the attorney her mother told her to, Nora, powerfully played by Laura Dern.She is the genuine representative of feminism. Nicole's action leaves dazzled Charlie no choice but to get himself an attorney; one that could bite as hard as Nora. At first Charlie meets the bulldog Jay (Ray Liotta, what a performance, so harsh that makes you smile), realizing Jay's methodology does not fit in his ethics, he goes to another lawyer. Bert is the opposite of what Jay is, as relaxed as one could be.
Marriage Story's cinematography is beautiful. Robbie Ryan, who was also the cinematographer of gorgeous award-winning The Favorite, demonstrates his excellency yet again. The soft, simplistic image that you would expect from a realistic film, combined with warm and lively colors, makes you feel about the film the way it is intended to; sad-and-funny. Robbie Ryan manages to demonstrate the emotional position the two main sides are in using meticulous framing, how distant they are, and camera angle choices, how up or down they are. Let's not also forget that any film that is shot on film in the digital age deserves a special credit.
Journey of Marriage Story ends not with character arc but 'letter arc'.A letter that was not read aloud is read aloud. Charlie's and Nicole's face clearly reveal that nothing will be the same after this journey. But is this change for the good or the worse?
Marriage Story is not a film to be missed.