Review: "Marriage Story" Creates One of the Most Empathetic Divorce Story Ever

Scene from Marriage Story

From under a hushed voice, Marriage Story opens with Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) shares lists of things that they like about each other. As a montage of their life starts to clue the viewer in, there's a sense of happiness in between both of them. It's a way of appreciating the joys that they brought to each other's life, as well as the odd eccentricities that they tolerate as a charming foible. This is director-writer Noah Baumbach's introduction to the world, and the montages create an innocence in such ideas as Charlie being too energy conscious. These details play out in a way that slowly begins to suggest to those familiar with the concept as a form of therapy. As the scene cuts to the current action, Charlie and Nicole are in marriage counseling, holding letters full of compliments that they'll share with each other.

That's where the issue starts. For all of the nice things that the audience has heard, neither has told each other. It's a world of implied joy hidden under something far more complicated. It's not just a case of romantic burnout. It's one where careers have pulled them to different coasts and suddenly the charming foibles they once forgave now are like nails on a chalkboard. It's understood why the couple wants to break-up, but what makes Baumbach's new film a masterpiece is that he's empathetic to both sides, never allowing the viewer to perform vindictive acts of taking sides. This isn't one where Charlie is a rage monster or Nicole too overbearing. It's merely a story of tragic reality. Sometimes life sends people in different directions, and in this case, divorce is most tragic not because of the people involved, but the circumstances they're placed into.

Things start off well enough: Charlie and Nicole met as aspiring as performers on Off-Broadway. Charlie fell into directing and is about to start a project that's earned him the MacArthur Genius Grant while Nicole has taken to a TV gig in Los Angeles, CA. The long-distance relationship doesn't seem to fit, especially as space gives them a lack of ability to cope. Their only connection becomes their son, whom Charlie is desperate to spend time with. No amount of time convinces them that they're right for each other anymore. There's petty squabbles and a general sense that the other is holding them back. It's a story full of many battles, many emotional, and it all comes to a head when Baumbach chooses to ruminate in the characters' own lives, finding that nothing they do is inherently vindictive. It's just that the stress of a normal family life drives them apart. They begin to question what joys they had with each other, and soon it becomes a battle over custody of their son, itself complicated by the couple's bi-coastal status.

Whereas most dramas would be fine settling for the internal lives of these characters, Marriage Story chooses to explore how the outside world looks in on their divorce. It's how Nicole's mother (Julie Hagerty) likes Charlie and is sad to see them split. It's how difficult it is for Charlie to find a divorce lawyer because of how busy he is out of state. Even when that happens, the figures who consult Charlie and Nicole are no-nonsense, seeing divorce from a presentation basis. Charlie needs to have a residence in Los Angeles. Nicole needs to play down her negligent behavior (which is minor but considered reprehensible in court). There is a battle for each other's souls, especially as each lawyer uses once innocent foibles as blackmail in court. It becomes tragic to hear, mostly because the divorce is not supposed to be ugly. The lawyers make it into a soulless cage match, and it's here that the attempt to remain normal becomes difficult.

Marriage Story understands that the biggest issue with divorce isn't just the complicated feelings towards each other, but how difficult it is in the world around them. By the time that the film gets to a piercing fight scene, both Driver and Johansson have done plenty to create the most three-dimensional couple in recent cinema. They have their admitted flaws and personal lives rich with meaning. There's so much to take from a moment with either character. The divorce lawyer scenes aren't only powerful because Alan Alda and Laura Dern are giving subtly persuasive performances, but also because they make the idea that anything imperfect being evil as their selling point. There's no way that they can achieve that goal, and it's a maze that makes one wonder why anyone would go through this process unless they really meant it. 

Then there's Driver and Johansson, who have been turning in chameleonic performances this entire decade. Here they finally deliver roles that strip away any artifice and allow them to perform raw emotion. Maybe it's the lyrical gymnastics of Baumbach's script, but the film is rarely better than when these characters get to vent their frustration, slowly unraveling their true feeling. Maybe what's tearing them apart isn't antipathy but anxiety. Maybe it's the sense that they can't be what they used to be when they both lived in New York. To see Driver yell out some heartbreaking things is to feel like one's staring into a prism of Baumbach's life. There has to be something real there, where people try to disarm their opponent in an argument by comparing their weaknesses to a poorly-received family member. It's in how Johansson responds to this with a stare, shocked at the obvious low blow. Everyone who has had an argument is guilty of this technique, and Baumbach manages to make it sound like he's rehearsed these scenes for years, forcing each one to live inside the hurt until their arm shakes with a desire to punch each other.

At its core, Marriage Story is about more than this desire. It's not about the hatred that they have towards each other, but slowly understanding the love they had. There's plenty of humor, such as a Halloween mishap where Charlie dresses up as The Invisible Man. Still, there's that desire to hold onto a semblance of normalcy that's being lost, and it comes out in odd ways. Characters fall apart, Charlie less subtly, and one has to question whether they see that as the fault of parenting or just the stress. By separating the characters, there's an understanding of what they brought to each other, and Johansson's calm and collected approach hides her own anger underneath. She is a mess, but she's not allowed to be a mess. It explores the dichotomy that society places on women and men in this scenario. Gone are the more black-and-white depictions like Kramer vs. Kramer. This is a story about how love is more complicated than personal feelings and isn't always a bad thing.

Because of how the film takes the extra time to show the joy with the scars, it manages to become one of the most groundbreaking depictions of divorce in recent American cinema. While it's a story of two people at the start, this is a journey into how their child responds to the changes as well as his parents shifting their attention to him. It's how divorce lawyers are driven by depictions of perfection instead of grey areas. There are wars being fought, and all for a passive and reluctant duo driven into the scenario. This is one of the few times where neither party comes out looking awful, and instead ends with a reminder of why they fell in love in the first place. It's honest in a way that most cinema fails to do, and every minute feels like a personal look into Baumbach's life. It's unfair how well he understands the human condition because what he says presents a lot of honesty that is sometimes uncomfortable, others hilarious, but mostly inescapable. The need to be open with each other will always be there. When it becomes a hassle, where does one go? Marriage Story is the next step, and sometimes the act is not out of vindictiveness. It's just out of acceptance.