A Love Story About Falling Out Of Love {criti-cally reviews}

Rating: 10/10 (2 April 2020)

The biggest problem with great movies like Marriage is writing a review about it. The movie is about a couple who due to some differences want to go through a divorce. The movie is a close examination of the process of divorce and how messy it can get, changing people along the way until things get back to normal.
Marriage Story movies through multiple genres. It starts of a light, romantic comedy movie. We get to know the intricate details and a personality overview in the first 5 minutes of the film as both characters introduce each other. While we flash through important and daily situations, we hear Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) explain what she loves about her husband Charlie (Adam Driver). Charlie loves being a dad, and how it's almost annoying how much he loves it. He cries easily in movies. He's very competitive, undaunted and is very clear about what he wants. These are only a few things Nicole loves about him. After that, it's Charlie's turn to tell us what he loves about his wife Nicole. She's a great dancer - infectious. She's a mother who plays, really plays. She gives great presents. While we hear this couple recite what they've written down, we get to meet them post-break-up in a marriage mediator's office. This was part of an assignment, to fully understand why they got married in the first place. As we progress the movie knocks you out with a single blow as it switches genres, very smoothly in to a distressing drama.
Nicole, a former teen film star, wants to move back to Los Angeles with the couple's eight-year-old son, but Charlie, an up-and-coming theatre director wants to remain in New York. What follows then is an emotionally raw journey into growing up, while trying to figure out how to survive on your own. It wouldn't be a Baumbach movie without a man-child at the center of it. The filmmaker has spent his entire career profiling gifted men who are reluctant to grow up. In Marriage story, Driver plays the same - slightly immature, considerably self-involved, but also capable of decency and warmth. Baumbach's choice of letting Driver express himself fully as the lead role in the movie was a great decision. He is definitely the strongest of them all and delivers an Oscar worthy performance that is transformative, unseen and heartbreaking. It seems all the other actors are feeding off his energy and bringing their A-game to the movie. Scarlett. Johansen has never looked and acted better. From a caring mother, to a becoming a woman who won't let anything come in between her dreams now, Nicole's transformation couldn't have been portrayed better than anyone else. If Driver adds emotions to the movie with his heartbreaking performance, Johansen makes it move forward with her role as a women who still loves her husband, but wants different things for herself.
As the movie progresses, we can clearly see a change in Charlie and Nicole's relationship and personality, having to deal with the divorce. Where there once was an intimate and almost wordless understanding of each other, there is now bitterness and resentment, egged on by an almost clinical legal process. The film's most heartbreaking scenes are the ones in which Nicole inadvertently calls Charlie 'honey' in the middle of the most vicious arguments; or when she decides his food order for him during a tense meeting with their lawyers. "I will never stop loving him," she says in that opening voiceover. Which is true. Nicole had become into a woman who knows what she wants and isn't holding back anymore. The only thing she's holding back in front of Charlie - are tears. As if she doesn't want him to see how vulnerable and damaged she is by everything that's changing. "Love doesn't make sense", and no truer words have ever been spoken. Charlie on the other hand, who's always been confident and career driven, is now crumbling down, defeated and uncertain of the future.
On of the special features of the film is that it manages to get it right that both Charlie and Nicole had their faults and they also had been disrespected in different ways and so the movie conveys the idea that in these situations usually (not every time) the blame is on both, maybe not equally but everyone had his faults. While Nicole turns very sour in the process of the divorce such as going against their joint agreement to not involve lawyers and hiring the most ruthless person in the business, Nora Fanshaw (played by Laura Dern in a scene-stealing performance, giving some specular and hard-hitting truths about gender inequality). Meanwhile, Charlie is not only forced to pay a portion of Nora's fees, but is made to settle for the kindly Bert (Alan Alda), the only person who seems to have an idea of the human toll separations can take on couples. There are moments when you do feel sorry for Charlie and feel Nicole is being too ruthless. But then, when you look from Nicole's perspective, Charlie did have a relation once outside of their marriage which he clarifies with a remarkable line, "You shouldn't be upset that I ****** her, You should be upset that I had a laugh with her!". The fault lies in both, some more than the other, which is which is hard to tell.
The most important thing the script gets right is the theme of divorce. The movie very closely examines and critics on the entire system and process of divorce, its impact on kids, on how it makes the couples waste a lot of money but most importantly on the hate it creates. Indeed the protagonists starts the process with all the good intentions to split up peacefully but when the lawyers kicks in they found themselves in a fight they don't even want.
Baumbach emerges as true master of writing and directing in this movie. The script is very special and the little moments in the story develop the characters and reveal more about their nature. In a particular scene, Nicole commands her mother, who has an independent equation with Charlie, to not interact with him anymore. When he visits them in one scene, he knows exactly where the paper towels are, and which drawer the cutlery is in. Little moments such as this convey reams of information about the characters, whereas lesser filmmakers would've had to rely on pages of dialogue. In a particular scene of a courtroom battle With Charlie's new lawyer representing him after he fired Bert with Nora Fanshaw, we see both the characters just sitting quietly. It's like they weren't even mentioned in the script. It's the lawyers talking, delivering their dialogues and fighting it to, while both the characters are just quiet. But in the scene right before, they were fighting, and for the first time openly venting their anger out to each other. It was such a metaphorical moment that the protagonists, even though they seem calm and composed in the courtroom, have their inner turmoil's and anger and resentment towards each together which they are battling to and want to express.
Baumbach shoots pivotal moments in the film in long, unbroken takes, allowing life to just... unfold. There are no flashy cinematic techniques on display here, save for perhaps a couple of pointed visual metaphors like three bedroom doors closing on Charlie all at once. The actors are allowed to roam free; not at the mercy of traditional set-ups but with palpable confidence. They are fluid and the acting seems very natural. The characters seem very human, like someone you would know and real, feeling real emotions, which make you feel with them. The approach is almost like theatre. The set is a playground that Driver and Johansson can explore, as we watch, transfixed at the truth they are able to tap into, again and again and again. The camera doesn't confine them to tight spaces, but offers silent support as they amble in and out of rooms; as they walk through frames and stare directly into its depths. Baumbach makes all of it seem effortless, with unprecedented results. The way he gets his cast to deliver minutes of dialogue, while his Director of Photography, Robbie Ryan, zooms in and out, follows and swirls around them, to then play with shifting between different actor's facial expressions in silent moments, is utterly enchanting. The cherry on top is Randy Newman composing a score that is completely apt and masterful!
Overall, Marriage Story is a great movie, with excellent acting, a touching screenplay, an immersive direction and a delicate score. This is one of those movies that will get discussed in film school, years from now. It has everything to become an all time classic and will proudly get called one of the best films of the decade. It is so authentic that watching it occasionally feels like eavesdropping on a couple in their most vulnerable moments. A melancholic, heavy-hearted yet joyously bittersweet story about marriage and its unfortunate path to severance in order to find happiness. It is a love story about falling out of love which guarantees that no cheeks will be left dry.