Ugliness of divorce beautifully told.

Rating: 8/10 (22 March 2020)

Marriage Story is based on the divorce of Writer-Director Noah Baumbach and actress Jennifer Jason Leigh (who I just watched a couple of days ago in Annihilation, another Netflix movie.) It also borrows from Baumbach's parent's divorce, and also from Scarlett Johansson who was going through her second divorce when she was approached for the film. Laura Dern is also a divorcee (shared the same lawyer with Scarlett which Dern's character is loosely based on,) and Adam Driver's parents were also divorced, so when Baumbach said this movie is theirs as much as his, he acknowledges the integral inputs they all gave in making this movie. For a drama, it's not dragging and had its funny moments but it also showed the very ugly side of divorce. One character said: "Criminal lawyers see bad people at their best, divorce lawyers see good people at their worst." It's a business in making look people bad, hitting each other on technicalities and if necessary, go down to the level of magnifying small mistakes as life-threatening ones, all in the name of getting custody of a child they both say they love very much.

The movie is very much about Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, both of whom bear an uncanny resemblance to Baumbach and Leigh. Adam who I first saw in HBO's Girls, I thought I hated him but also fell in love with which is a testament to his acting ability. In 2019 we saw him both as Kylo Ren in Star Wars Episode IX and Marriage Story, and there's really no way but up for him in the years to come. Scarlett Johansson is good as usual, but her comment about being able to play whatever role she wants still rubs me off in the wrong way. Laura Dern was superb, shining brightly even as a supporting role. Her performance here is a mix of her The Fault in our Stars cool mom and her 'Big Little Lies' vicious mom. It even has a dash of the cunning Vice Admiral Holdo from Star Wars Episode IX.
The heart of the movie is the confrontation between the couple. It became more impressive after reading how it was done in 50 takes in two days. They had to finish each take before starting over, and no improvisations were allowed. Everything was scripted, even their pauses. From time to time the director will hand them notes to elicit a different reaction. Other highlights include the scene where Driver's character reads the letter Johansson's character wrote describing him and the litany of Dern's character as to why women are held to higher standards: women are compared to Mary who did everything for Jesus while men are held to standards of Joseph who was an absentee father. Compelling stuff right there.