Marriage Story
Noah Baumbach’s talent as both a writer and a director have always been his innate ability to toe the line between theatrical and realistic with his characters, offering lovably exaggerated versions of people we know -and in some cases, loathe- without it ever feeling so exaggerated that it becomes parody. While his previous works, such as The Squid and the Whale (2005) and Frances Ha (2012) utilize this philosophy to ground the theatrical in the real, Marriage Story is the inverse, tackling the very real and very painful topic of divorce in such a way that it becomes theatrical.
From the opening scene, Baumbach makes it clear that this is not a film that’s going to pick a side. It opens with a wonderful montage of the couple in question (Nicole and Charlie, played by Scarlet Johansson and Adam Driver, respectively) reading a sort of grocery list of the other person’s most admirable traits, set to a wonderfully cut montage of them in their most intimate family moments. This montage is bookended with their reality; the two are going through separation counseling to ease their impending divorce. This opening scene serves as a thesis for the entire film, as we spend the next two hours exploring every dimension of the divorce, from the sparks that led to the fire, to the ashes left behind.
As stated previously, Marriage Story is not a film about picking sides. Every moment of weakness or vulnerability felt by one character is almost immediately followed up with a mirroring scene of the other. The film manages to weave a list of pros and cons into the story, creating a narrative of action and reaction that becomes an emotional civil war as their relationship is buried under judicial red tape. But what makes Marriage Story so much more compelling than other films in this genre is that it never forgets the root cause of these characters’ pain. Despite their willingness to go through a process as emotionally draining as divorce, we never get the sense it’s because they want to, so much as it is that they have to.
There is a scene early on where Nicole, anticipating Charlie’s arrival at her mother’s house, has to strategize a way to “serve” Charlie their divorce papers, a process that she legally can not do herself. Johannson performs this scene in a tenderly militaristic way, making the most efficient choices with a twinge of regret just below the surface, which only becomes more difficult when Charlie arrives with the news that his theater company was awarded a prestigious grant. The way Johansson abandons her plan without explicitly stating so is a testament to both her performance and the refreshingly real dynamic Baumbach has cultivated for these characters, never forgetting the humanity underneath this ordeal.
Both Johansson and Driver deliver career-best performances that ultimately become the reason why the film works so well. Baumbach has always relied heavily on his actors, as a lot of characters are heavily flawed and don’t work on paper. Baumbach gives the burden of making these flaws charming to his actors, and we’ve seen it work to his advantage (Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha) and his detriment (Ben Stiller in While We’re Young). Johansson and Driver are firing on all cylinders here, hiding all the pain and heartbreak as best as they can, letting it out in little moments before ultimately unleashing it all in one of the most brutal arguments ever put to film. Their clash towards the end of the film serves as a demo reel for human emotion as they both gradually go from concerned and friendly to demonically hateful, winding down into loving regret. This scene is both hard to watch and equally hard to look away from, as both of these actors bare their all in a way that never feels melodramatic or aware of its own importance. Speaking from a pure performance perspective, this is Baumbach’s absolute best film.
It feels like Baumbach has been working towards this film his whole career. Marriage Story offers new heights for a lot of Baumbach’s signature talents; the dialogue is casually theatrical, the performances are heartbreakingly real, and the writing is multi-dimensional and organic. It’s hard to predict where he’s going to go from here, but at the very least he can hopefully become a directorial contractor to actors yearning to get the right script for a shot at an Oscar.