A remarkable achievement!

Rating: 10/10 (8 December 2019)

It's rare that a film's characters feel so lived in, so authentic, so possible. All their flaws are just that, flaws. We all have them, and most of us in excess. This is a fundamental truth which Marriage Story not only understands but embraces. It's refreshing to venture into a story about such a difficult issue that deals with characters who are likable and unlikable simultaneously. A story that places characters at it's center who are conflicted, yet good people at heart.
Nicole and Charlie hate each other. They also love each other. They get along in a manageable way, neither one wanting to overstep or make the other feel out of place. Their boundaries are clear yet flexible. These two know each other in the most intimate of ways, something that goes beyond love and romance. They know who the other really is, where their true self resides.
Nicole can order a meal or Charlie as if she's ordering for herself, her understanding of who is has become second nature. Charlie will drop what he's doing to fix Nicole's gate, which has been rendered inoperable during a blackout, because he knows it makes her uneasy, it's not even a question of whether he should or not-he knows it's needed. They can do these things for each other even despite being in the middle of a divorce settlement.
There's palpable animosity between them, but there is also a deep connection that has formed over a decade of spending their lives together that isn't easily erased. At times, most times, it seems as though neither of them wants this connection to fade, even if they both want their lives to be separate.
Nicole feels lost, alone, defeated. She doesn't think of herself as an individual any longer. She's become a nomad in her own head, wandering an unfamiliar landscape that should be intricate and weaved with emotional self awareness. Scarlett Johansson breezes through Marriage Story with a tender grace, a loving touch, the soothing nature of a mother, a woman who has the ability to nurture others yet has forgotten, not only who she is, but how to be a person unto herself.
There wasn't a single frame of this film where I felt I was watching Scarlett Johansson playing a character. I was certain I was witnessing some new undiscovered talent named Nicole catching her big break. Her words surge with feeling, her face bares the emotions nakedly and without concern for what others may think. She's captured the essence of a person so fully realized it's difficult to believe she's playing a role of fiction.
Charlie feels confused, distraught, guilty. He's captured by his own life and work to the point of not being able to see when others around him are drowning. He, too, has become a wander in a land that is alien, but one he also knows he's visited before. His and Nicole's lives are worked out, set to a schedule and standard he was comfortable with-one he hadn't considered to be prone to disarray. To him, their each good at different things and these opposite qualities balance not just their lives but their entire worlds.
He's a man uncomfortable with change, someone who had to struggle greatly to achieve the goals he set for himself. Adam Driver is raw and affecting every second he's on screen. When he hurts we feel his pain, when he cries that emotion wells within us the same. There is no doubt we're watching a documentary about this person's life coming undone.
Noah Baumbach allows his lens to linger just as long as is needed to hit us with the punch he's aiming for. He moves in close when his performers are bearing their souls, keeping us near the action so we know it's real. He's talented enough to allow the range of his collaborators to reach their limits, and conscious enough to know when to pull back and move on. His instinctual ability to capture the essence of a character is the mark of an actor's director. His screenplay pops with energy when needed and allows us to feel a deep brooding undercurrent of a forthcoming boiling point.
He's not content to just make a film about two people falling away from each other. No, he's striving for something far more complex. He set his sights on telling a story where the characters don't have to be loved or hated for their points of view to make sense or be felt, and yet he still manages to make us feel both of those emotions throughout the film.
Marriage Story is crafted with the utmost care. The technique of it's creator is working at the highest level of this craft. Baumbach's performers grab us by the face, staring intently into our eyes, and scream at us that this is a story worth telling, worth experiencing, and it's alright to swept up in it. This isn't an easy topic to discuss. Divorces often become messy and those involved lose sight of the fact that the person opposite them was someone they had a real closeness to at one time. Handling a film like this in such a fresh way would be a challenge for anyone to direct, write, or perform, and lucky for us this one was taken on by three supremely capable talents.