Marriage Story

Rating: 7/10 (17 December 2019)

Despite the proliferation of channels such as Hallmark and Lifetime. Good films that show a realistic portrayal of a breakdown in a marriage and the subsequent divorce are few and far between.
The Oscar winning Kramer vs Kramer was 40 years ago. The black comedy The War of the Roses was 30 years ago.
Based on director's Noah Baumbach's own experiences of getting divorced. Charlie (Adam Driver) is a New York theatre director. His wife Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) is an actress who has recently moved back to Los Angeles to make a television series and taken their son Henry with her.
Although the couple agreed to divorce amicably without involving lawyers. Nicole then hires a hotshot divorce lawyer in LA, Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern) who tells Nicole thaty being LA based would be advantageous for Nicole. In turn Charlie lawyers up. First he goes to a veteran attorney Bert Spitz (Alan Alda) whose advice seems to vary a lot but at least he sees the need to come to an agreement. Charlie then goes for the more pumped up and expensive Jay Marotta (Ray Liotta) and both sides end up slinging mud at each other.
I suppose most of the male audience will sympathise with Charlie and would be more willing to see events from his point of view. He is an up and coming theatre director with a show moving to Broadway. Charlie is confused as to why Nicole has gone legalistic. He fears losing contact with his son, he realises the expense of getting divorced and that he will end up footing the bill.
Most of the female audience will sympathise with Nicole. She has fallen out of love with Charlie, she now feels held back and thinks she can do better in LA. She suspects Charlie might have had an affair.
I watched the movie with my wife and she certainly sided with Nicole.
Marriage Story is a mature and intelligent movie. It doesn't take sides. Despite Charlie's and Nicole's best intentions of an amicable separation. They then repeat the same mistakes which thousands of other divorcing couple do the world over.
There is some humour in this movie, at times it is sad and raw. I did find the film overlong and the early part of the movie was slow paced.