OVP: Marriage Story (2019)

Film: Marriage Story (2019)
Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta
Director: Noah Baumbach
Oscar History: 6 nominations/1 win (Best Picture, Actor-Adam Driver, Actress, Scarlett Johansson, Supporting Actress-Laura Dern*, Score, Original Screenplay)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

In a different era, Marriage Story would have been a bigger deal.  In the 1970's through the late 1990's, films like Marriage Story, ones about complicated adults going through a real-life chapter, would have been a box office gold mine, not just a movie that seems intent on winning Oscars.  While I saw this film about two weeks ago, I wanted to let this simmer for a while, and perhaps that was a bad idea (in the cynical age of social media, everything, including something as hard-to-watch as Marriage Story, is rife for meme-ification).  But this is a complicated movie, one that's worth investigating even if it's not the cultural touchstone that it could've been, and might be the first time I saw Netflix get a "prestige" picture that could well have gotten lost in the cinematic shuffle, rather than just calling "dibs" on an Oscar contender that would have made it with AMPAS anyway (like Roma or The Irishman).

(Spoilers Ahead) The film centers on the crumbling marriage of Charlie (Driver) and Nicole (Johansson).  The film opens with the two making a list about the things they like about one another, but Nicole doesn't want to read it & Charlie does.  This is a projection of where we're headed in the movie.  Charlie has been fine in their relationship for a year, focusing on his physical and emotional wants above Nicole (even having a brief affair), while Nicole has been trying to dampen her own passions, her own ambitions & career successes, to put her husband and son above her own dreams.

The film then shows what a divorce between two people who clearly loved each other at one point looks like.  It's filled with hate, and envy, and pettiness, but also it's filled with broken hearts over losing someone you clearly once loved.  Marriage Story is hard to watch, because it doesn't shy away from how tough it is to admit defeat after taking a vow of "forever."  There are scenes where Nicole has the upper-hand, and then later where Charlie does, using the confidences they had for each other, the trust they had in each other, against one another.  The film's most famous scene is the fight they have in Charlie's new apartment, where they start screaming their hatreds at each other, eventually trying to hurt one another in the biggest way possible, and perhaps yelling more at themselves & the fact that they hate that they still feel for each other because it would make this entire process easier.  It's a fascinating movie, and one that feels personal & universal, something difficult for such a subject.

The acting in the movie is uniformly good, though the two leads steal the show.  Dern, Alda, & Liotta all get showy parts, but they're playing hilarious caricatures more than they are flesh-and-blood human beings; Dern is the best of the three (I could totally see her winning the Oscar for this), but they are inconsequential to the emotional crux of the film.  It's Driver & Johansson's show, and two of my generation's best actors get full-range to explore Charlie & Nicole, giving us imperfect, real, genuine human creations for the screen.  Driver singing "Being Alive" and realizing that this chapter of his life is over, or Johansson's quiet realization of what she signed up for when Charlie doesn't get equal custody-it's breathtaking acting, and a true showcase for both performers.