Divorce Among the Rich and Famous!

Rating: 8/10 (9 December 2019)

"Marriage Story" is the tale of the marriage breakup of two affluent New York people...Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver). Nicole is well known actress who has been working in Charlie's theater group. Charlie is an award winning director whose plays sometimes reach Broadway.
Nicole receives an offer from Hollywood to star in a TV pilot. Unhappy in her marriage, she goes off to Los Angeles to pursue her career. Charlie continues to work with his theater group. Nicole is supposed to return to New York after completing the pilot but it is picked up as a series and therefore she wants to stay in California with their young son.
Charlie on the other hand, wants to remain in New York and wants Nicole to return there. Their disagreement results in their wanting to get a divorce. At first the agree to settle the dispute without legal representation. Working with a mediator who had them write out their feelings about each other, fails.
Everything seems to be going along nicely when a co-worker in Hollywood suggests to Nicole to hire famous divorce lawyer Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern) to handle her case. When Charlie comes to LA to visit their son, he is served with divorce papers, much to his surprise. Charlie is then forced to hire his own lawyer. He first goes to high end lawyer Jay (Ray Liotta). His no-nonsense and very expensive approach discourages Charlie.
Charlie next goes to aging lawyer Bert Spitz (Alan Alda) who works much cheaper. When the couple and their respective councils meet, Charlie discovers that Spitz will be unable to adequately represent him and fires him in favor of the more expensive aggressive Jay. Then the gloves come off and..........................
I couldn't help but notice the similarities between this film and "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979). Both are fighting over the custody of a young son, both have the wife running off to California and both hire expensive attorneys to do battle on their behalf. The final result is also quite similar.
The acting in :Marriage Story" is superb. Johansson and Driver in the leads give Oscar worthy performances. The film is also grace with a stellar supporting cast with Laura Dern, Alan Alda and Ray Liotta standing out as various bottom feeding attorneys. Julie Hagerty turns up as Nicole's mother and also watch for Wallace Shawn as a dirty minded member of Charlie's theater group.