Love Hurts

Rating: 8/10 (8 December 2019)

Essentially a two-hander between Johansson and Driver, with extended cameos from others, this is the story of two extraordinary people in search of a way to feel fulfilled creatively even if it means their marriage falls apart. While Nicole and Charlie are both relatable in terms of being decent human beings, they're also quite extraordinary in terms of their careers - she an aspiring actress finding success in TV after building a great reputation in her husband's off-broadway plays, while he's a naturally gifted award-winning director director. As a couple they have worked as a team to build each other up, but their achievements bring opportunities that pull them in opposite directions - Nicole to LA and Charlie to stay in NY. Which is when the problems start, exacerbated by Nicole wanting their son, Henry, to accompany her to LA while she shoots her TV series.
At its centre Johansson and Driver play two people who were deeply in love and drove each other to success, that much is obvious in the way they behave towards each other throughout, even when arguing. Both actors have great scenes in which allow them to move from one emotion to the next with a slow build intensity that suddenly explodes: initial compassion brimming up to overflowing bitterness, civil reasonableness descending into festering anger. They both shine. Despite things spiralling from promises once made between young lovers to the grab-all-you-can machiavellian greed of lawyers, these two still care for each other and if they can resolve their differences is at the heart of their story.
Nicole and Charlie's wealth - her family isn't poor, and he wins an award that gives him means - allow them privileges that most would envy, which is where the story loses points for relatability. There's no real struggle to make ends meet when hiring top line divorce lawyers - Charlie struggles for a moment, but it then becomes too one-sided and just in time he wins an award which evens things up...insert convenient plot-device. Make no mistake, these are no ordinary couple: they are privileged, extremely gifted, white, and any day-to-day struggle is easily mended so that it doesn't become a gaping crack to be papered over later.
While Johansson and Driver make the most of their roles their son, Henry, goes about his day to day almost as if there's little affect on him - other than looking like a dead ringer for the child in The Shining; alas, neither parent come to find him writing 'RedRum' at any time, the most he can muster is an occasional whinge about a first-world problem.
I could watch Merritt Wever all day long, she steals every scene she's in and is an absolute star. Between this and Unbelievable she's certainly made a lasting impression as one to watch for the future.
Laura Dern is silky smooth as an unctuous divorce lawyer well-practiced in buttering up clients and leveraging innocent comments, while Ray Liotta is aggressively persuasive as her battle-hardened counterpart always in fight-mode; Alan Alda is the sage old 4 times married semi-retired lawyer Charlie is saddled with when he first becomes aware of how serious things are. The lawyers live in a completely different world to Nicole and Charlie, theirs is a world of emotional manipulation and direction for profit, not art.
Everyone gives it socks and there's plenty of good humour, tenderness, spite and compassion to make the characters rounded and full of life. All-in-all, a feel good aspirational divorce flick.