Masterful Performances in Noah Baumbach's Magnum Opus

Rating: 10/10 (15 October 2019)

Marriage Story is Noah Baumbach's magnum opus, an emotionally-poignant film that will surely be added the great canon of masterpieces and its awards-worthy performances examined in acting classes.
Marriage Story navigates the emotionally-fraught lives of a couple going through divorce and masterfully places the audience as a helpless invisible child witnessing the trials and tribulations Charlie and Nicole endure. The humanity, sensitivity and candor in Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson's performances coupled with an exemplary script provides for a grounded film unfolding with endless layers of depth that mine the audience of emotional catharsis.
The simple title: Marriage Story aptly encapsulates the film. It's not a divorce story, It's about a marriage of dichotomies and dualisms. NY vs LA, stage vs screen, work vs play, family vs friends, actor vs director, performance vs authenticity. It may be hard to comprehend that throughout the film as we witness Charlie and Nicole fall apart but its in the final sequence that Baumbach really reconciles the dichotomies. He tenderly reveals to the audience that it was not his intent to show how different each side of the dualisms, but to shine a light on the overlap, the grey areas, the messiness of trying to draw lines in the sand.