A Marriage of Drama and Humor

The complex feelings that come with ending a relationship are raw but funny.

Marriage Story

Likes: Equal parts emotionally devastation and witty humor.

Dislikes: Is it biased toward Charlie? I don’t know, but it kept hounding me throughout.

Bottom Line: If you’ve ever had to end a relationship with someone, then you’ll find something familiar here.

5 out of 5. ◆◆◆◆◆

Marriage Story has an accurate name. It is indeed a story about marriage. Just as easily, this movie could have been titled “Divorce Story”. The process of our protagonists separating is the entire arc of the film after all. But a title change like that, one focusing on destruction, would have taken something away from the message which I think has more to do with what you sacrifice in a relationship, bittersweet memory, and love that is powerful for forgiveness.

The plot of Noah Baumbach’s newest family drama is simple. Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole (Scarlett Johannsson) are having marital troubles and couples counseling is quickly shown to be unhelpful from the first scene. When divorce becomes a forgone conclusion, the conflict transforms to their son Henry (Azhy Robertson) and where he will live. As divorce lawyers get involved, the situation escalates and long held resentments come out with both characters attacking each other in vicious and seemingly unforgivable ways.

Even though I have never gone through divorce or been close to anyone going through divorce, I have been in relationships and know what it’s like when differences cause relationships to crack and break apart. Charlie and Nicole breaking apart is strikingly accurate and one of the best things about this film. Charlie wants to live in New York City and direct plays at his art-house theater, Nicole is thinking about Los Angeles and a shift to television instead. Charlie feels like his opinions are obvious, Nicole feels like he’s never really considered hers. Both characters are right and both characters are wrong. It’s brutal but honest and was emotionally draining to watch.

At the same time, there is plenty of humor along the way. Some of my favorites in no particular or exhaustive order: how everyone keeps telling Charlie that California has plenty of space, the uniquely LA chaos of Nicole’s pilot and trendy pool party, Bert Spitz (Alan Alda) as Charlie’s unhelpful first lawyer, Rich Fulcher randomly playing the divorce judge, everything about Nicole’s mom Sandra (Julie Hagerty), the way Charlie’s theater group gossips about him, Frank’s (Wallace Shawn) rambling stories, Charlie’s slowly less convincing insistence that “We’re a New York family”, the way we’re introduced to Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern) apologizing for her “sleppy” appearance when she’s wearing heels, Henry’s desire to be a ninja for Halloween, and the entire scene where Nicole serves Charlie his divorce papers. (I could write an entire piece on the brilliance of that scene alone) The dialogue, which seemed less Baumbach mumblecore than usual to me, and the editing are particularly aligned with some great performances to create very funny sequences.

Ultimately, I think that Marriage Story is a hopeful narrative at its core. It concludes with Charlie and Nicole accepting their situation and including each other in Henry’s life. Their resentful climax was a necessary relief of pressure from the sacrifices at forging a life together and seems far removed now. More importantly, it also seems clear that there is love enough to forgive that resentment. Charlie and Nicole are equally believable as being in love as they are an imperfect match for each other. The bond they formed was not a lost cause and valuable even after marriage dies.