Two sides of a Divorce

Rating: 8/10 (26 March 2020)

Marriage Story captures both sides of the story for once, which is kind of rare I would say in the cinematic world. Charlie and Nicole start the story by writing about each other, the things they love about each other when they are in one of the therapist sessions. Nicole declines to share her writings and Charlie was keen on sharing his but Nicole was no longer interested in Charlie or his thoughts. What sounds like a perfect marriage, slowly shows us how the two ends up destroying each other in ways they never thought they could.
Charlie has always been dependent on his work, his life revolved around his theatre. His choices were based on what he thought would be best, Nicole never had a say and it was getting to a point where she felt she was nothing but worthless as an individual. The writer and the director of the movie have played with emotions, not everything is sad and dull, there is a lot of humor as well. The scene where Nicole wants to serve Charlie with the papers has to be one of the best scenes in the movie, it shows the complete chaos that happens in a family.
The couple had agreed to solve everything by themselves and make sure that their son does not feel the wrath of the divorce. But when Nicole moves back to LA, she becomes a totally different person, in her terms she's finally free and can make decisions and choices of her own. Henry, their son slowly loses interest in his father as he enjoys his mother's company more. Charlie does not give up on his son easily, he in fact fights for him till the very end.
You get to experience the true bitter nature of both the characters when they involve the lawyers. Nicole's lawyer Nora is well known to get the best possible deals for her clients, while Charlie struggles to find a lawyer at first, he later finds someone who was very lethargic in nature. Charlie eventually hires Jay after he realizes Nicole is ready to destroy him no matter what.
A scene where Charlie and Nicole go against each other is probably one of the most emotional scenes of the movie as you get to understand how bad they could taint each other. The movie ends with possibly one of the best sequences in which Henry is reading the notes that Nicole had made in the first scene of the movie, Charlie reads it and eventually bursts into tears and Nicole stands behind him equally emotional. Marriage story is indeed a complete circle.