Marriage Story: Baumbach's Masterpiece
Marriage Story opens with a scene in which Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver narrate a list of things they love and qualities they observe about one another while a montage of these moments playout for the audience. These lists sound like they come from the perfect marriage until it is then revealed that it is apart of an exercise during a therapy session for a hostile separation. It is an introduction to the characters and their marriage that has ended. They both refuse to read the list out loud. This opening scene perfectly sets up the tone for the rest of the film.
Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story captures a vicious and hilarious separation between Charlie and Nicole. The film tells the separation from the perspective of the couple as the custody of their child becomes an increasingly central issue to the divorce and story. Over the course of the film, audiences will watch the couple continue to tear themselves and one another apart.
Charlie and Nicole lived together in New York where Charlie owns a theater company and Nicole stars in his plays. After the destruction of their relationship, Nicole is heading to Los Angeles with their son Henry, her hometown, to work on a TV pilot while Charlie stays in New York to take his play to Broadway. Throughout the film, Charlie insists this movie is temporary but Henry claims to prefer California to New York. The couple consistently seemed trapped with their situation as emphasized by the cinematography and the constant repetition of Los Angeles having "space" contrast this feeling.
Marriage Story is a collection of stories about the couple. Nicole gives a phenomenal monologue in the office of her Lawyer played by Laura Dern. She tells her about her early relationship with Charlie. The film dealing with divorce narrative has undertones of a legal battle. The film moves from raw emotional to laugh provoking comedy. There is also a weird musical tone with Stephen Sondheim's songs sprinkled through to up the emotion and Randy Newman's score evokes the feeling of romance. These musical elements pull audiences in different directions.
Marriage Story manages to portray everyone in this story right based on their position in the situation. Charlie, Nicole, and Henry are right. The three of them are all hurting and Baumbach tells the story with devastation instead of having a villain. It is a wrenching divorce story with no one as the one cause or fault; they all have valid reasons for why they are right or act in a certain way. Based on the way the script is divided the audience feels for Charlie due to his separation from Henry and he has more opportunities for pain. But the beautiful monologue performed by Nicole in the lawyer's office she explains her love story with Charlie and how she felt diminished over time and how she decided to leave the marriage. It all makes perfect sense and is believable. No one is in the wrong but at the same time, both are.
The whole film feels like a play thanks to Baumbach's style of writing and close up shots. The conversations between Charlie and Nicole start off pleasant and then increasingly become tense and angry. The film is driven by the performances of both Johansson and Driver. They both inhabit and embrace their characters and commit during both the good and bad times for each one. The story is complex and turns the terrible process of divorce into something so deep and humane and interesting to watch.