☆☆☆☆½
There is trouble here, that is clear. There are the resentments and petty frustrations grown enormous that lead to seething disgust. And yet, when Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story begins, they seem surmountable.
Charlie (Adam Driver) is a successful theater director in New York. Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) is his wife and lead actress. It is clear they dislike each other, but it is also clear, right away, that they love, respect and admire each other. Aren't these the foundations for marriage?'
No. They are not enough. Maybe they were, or, as the film progresses, we learn that maybe they weren't. Who's to know? But they tried, and they failed, and Marriage Story is an absorbing, often harrowing, frequently funny and sometimes Woody Allen-esque examination not, as the title implies, of the marriage, but of the divorce.
You will think you know which side you're on right away. But difficult personalities reveal themselves as tempestuous, mercurial, ugly and unfair. Both of these people are all of these things, and also charming, clever, devoted, caring. This is not a movie that takes sides, but presents the impossibility of the situation, and the messiness of life. The point is not the resolution but for the predicament itself, and fierce performances, careful direction and an understated score by Randy Newman combine in this potent, sympathetic film that cares not about sides, only about the imperfection and pain of the end of a marriage between two people who still know exactly why they fell in love.
Viewed Dec. 22, 2019 -- Netflix
Charlie (Adam Driver) is a successful theater director in New York. Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) is his wife and lead actress. It is clear they dislike each other, but it is also clear, right away, that they love, respect and admire each other. Aren't these the foundations for marriage?'
No. They are not enough. Maybe they were, or, as the film progresses, we learn that maybe they weren't. Who's to know? But they tried, and they failed, and Marriage Story is an absorbing, often harrowing, frequently funny and sometimes Woody Allen-esque examination not, as the title implies, of the marriage, but of the divorce.
You will think you know which side you're on right away. But difficult personalities reveal themselves as tempestuous, mercurial, ugly and unfair. Both of these people are all of these things, and also charming, clever, devoted, caring. This is not a movie that takes sides, but presents the impossibility of the situation, and the messiness of life. The point is not the resolution but for the predicament itself, and fierce performances, careful direction and an understated score by Randy Newman combine in this potent, sympathetic film that cares not about sides, only about the imperfection and pain of the end of a marriage between two people who still know exactly why they fell in love.
Viewed Dec. 22, 2019 -- Netflix
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