Be prepared

Rating: 9/10 (14 January 2020)

If you've been through a divorce, as a spouse or a child, be prepared. This movie will get you right in the gut. It will almost certainly dredge up highly painful memories -- I'm a now-grown child of divorce and I've been alternating between sadness and downright rage ever since I watched it. And my parents split 40 years ago. It's so good I almost wish I hadn't watched it.
The film is evenhanded overall, but I agree with those who, if they have to choose a side, go with Adam Driver's Charlie. Scarlett Johanssen's Nicole has felt like second fiddle in her marriage for years and once she moves to LA with their boy, she's clearly relishing being in control of the situation. She's continually deceiving Charlie and springing things on him: from hiring an aggressive divorce lawyer, for example, when they'd agreed not to use lawyers, to barring him from planned family activities with their son.
Nicole herself would probably argue that Charlie insensitively disregarded her wants for years, but that bad behavior would not justify hers. Two wrongs do not make a right, and his behavior was not in the service of separating a parent from their child.