Empathy reflected in script-writing, acting and directing

Rating: 8/10 (17 May 2020)

'Marriage Story' is inspired by the experience of its own director. Baumbach himself has been divorced from Jennifer Jason Leigh and has used his parents' divorce as inspiration for his previous film. He said, "I have a real connection to the material ... but I was also at a time in my life where many of my friends were getting divorced. I saw it as an opportunity to do something more expansive, so I did a lot of research. I interviewed a lot of my friends, and friends of friends, and then also lawyers, judges, mediators." Adam Driver perhaps has shown one of his best performances yet, having most well known for a HBO TV Series 'Girls'.
The opening and closing scenes work as sequences and works well together, without giving away the plot of the film. Most of all, this is a film that looks really realistic since it is based on quite a lot of research. People do not have to be married to understand this film as the film will definitely show us how it feels to be main characters, Nicole and Charlie. The film also built empathy for both characters even though they are experiencing divorce. This is something really rare as divorce is often depicted as husband or wife's fault but never both. Here's a review of how the film uses editing for empathy, which really works well with the script-writing, acting and directing of the film.