I chuckle at all those innocent Netflix subscriber couples, excited for a Netflix and Chill night, turning on a movie called Marriage Story, hoping for something sweet and innocent. Not a ho hum story about a couple in love, Noah Baumbach’s near masterpiece is about a marriage that has fallen apart, but a family that hasn’t. Well written, perceptive and emotionally potent, Marriage Story gives audiences the best movie about divorce since A Separation.
The movie opens in therapy, as Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver) write loving letters to one another before their divorce begins. Nicole moves herself and her son Henry (Azhy Robertson) to LA to work on the TV pilot she just booked, leaving Charlie in New York, waiting for their return. Scared she might lose custody of her kid, Nicole hires Nora (Laura Dern) as her California divorce attorney and serves Charlie with papers, even though he thought the couple was separating without using lawyers. This process strains both Charlie and Nicole, because in order to get what they want, they have to resort to dirty personal tactics, when all what they really should be focusing on is to make sure Henry is happy.
Noah Baumbach has been clear about Marriage Story’s inspiration: his own marital divorce. sadly. Familiar with the process on a personal level, Baumbach, already a perceptive gifted writer, really finds emotional truths all through Marriage Story. He opens smartly with the real life Nicole and Charlie, trying hard to be human despite all the pain they feel from falling out of love. Unfamiliar with being out of control and afraid to lose custody of Henry, Nicole and Charlie consult lawyers, whom they trust to know the process and seamlessly get the couple through their separation. At first this seems painless, since the couple is focused on doing what’s right for Henry. What the pair both learn is that the system rewards cruel behavior: in order to “win” your case – that’s what’s important in the divorce system – you have to present your “story” to a judge, which involves you selling all your positives and really sticking it to your spouse, using situations out of context to get what you want out of a settlement. Nicole and Charlie start out civil, but because of the cold inhumanity of their situation, they turn into what the system demands: focusing on hurting each other instead of remembering this is for Henry. Watching the pair turn to the dark side is handled with that empathetic Baumbach touch, as he shows how unavoidable that turn is because of the divorce process. This vicious assault obviously hardens both Nicole and Charlie toward one another, leading to a scene where they try to get a resolution without lawyers. That argument, just like the one in Before Midnight, is written so well that it clearly has happened to poor Noah Baumbach in some form. The beats are so well thought out: Nicole and Charlie start civil. Then the true emotions bubble to the surface. Then the argument shifts into verbal assaults, which escalate to the most cruel climax possible, usually until the emotion is all spent. Then, exhausted and hurt, both parties give up, and usually apologize, hoping to be forgiven. It’s a tough sit for sure, but because of the acting and Baumbach’s writing, Marriage Story keeps your attention throughout, riveting and gutting you with how emotionally bare and honest the story is told.
Baumbach’s job is also easier when Black Widow and Kylo Ren are your leads. ScarJo gets to play Nicole as a woman without agency who finds it again with this separation. Johansson sells Nicole’s transformation from hopeless to driven subtly and effectively, all while making us empathetic to her actions. Adam Driver gets the “off the rails” part with Charlie, who’s carefully constructed life is completely turned on its head. One of our great acting chameleons, Driver plays down Charlie’s emotions for a long time, using the character’s delusion/hope for the future he wants as a way to keep calm. However, as he sees himself losing everything that mattered to his previous life, Driver slowly pushes Charlie’s emotions front and center. Driver and Johansson are also totally believeable as a couple; their conversations together come across as strained but caring, perfect for a couple going through a divorce. That big fight that happens? It’s played perfectly by the pair, with them subtly changing their cadence and emotional state until the audience is riveted with how raw and honest the actors are selling their Marriage Story. Everyone involved brings their A game besides Driver and Johansson, especially Laura Dern as Nicole’s attorney and Alan Alda as Charlie’s.
And yet, despite all that pain, Baumbach remember that a Marriage Story goes on even after a divorce, especially if you have a kid and a family. Baumbach smartly ends the movie on a note of hope; once the settlement is concluded, everyone can move on and hopefully put the pieces together of a new type of family. Even though Nicole and Charlie will never be in love like they were, they can still be a family and live a life together, a sobering, complicated but ultimately beautiful sentiment. Marriage Story doesn’t have a sad or happy ending. It simply starts a new chapter.