Marriage Story

Dunno why pple trying to trash this movie cause it's one of the most compelling yet realistic movie I have ever seen. Realistic in sense that the plot it's based on real issues that millions of people have gone through and are going thru too. It gives me a sense of comfort knowing am not the only one feeling this feeling.

Although every story is individual, the film captures a couple of important general realities about the state of modern divorce: 1) Many divorces shouldn't happen and that includes this divorce as it was portrayed. The couple had plenty of regard for each other which was demonstrated in several portrayed interactions between them. The divorce appears to be mostly motivated by their differing professional aspirations. No matter how justified these may have been, in my moral judgment they should have been secondary to providing a stable home for their child. Perhaps the saddest aspect of our modern society is that many of us fail to realize that life is best experienced by subjugating our own needs to those around us, most particularly within our immediate family and even more particularly to our minor children. This form of narcissism seems more prevalent in show business where successful careers depend on self promotion and that may explain why people in that occupation appear to divorce at a higher rate. 2) Our legal system exacerbates the divorce experience for those who have assets In most cases at the time that the decision to divorce is made, the ensuing pain is underestimated by the couple. Rather than the anticipated experience of freedom and removal of a burden, the loss of companionship causes considerable pain and grief which is most often redirected as anger toward the other spouse. If the couple have assets and hire attorneys, it is in the financial interest of the legal professionals who are billing hourly to take advantage of this acrimony. Many family law lawyers are like the Alan Alda character in the film and do their best to address the emotional needs of their clients despite this financial reality but there are others who do not. Too often divorces cause huge financial pain for both parties.

"Marriage Story" is a film about a couple which is going trough the phases of a divorce. The best thing about this movie is that the characters, the two protagonists in particular, have a very human taste and they seem like real people feeling real emotions. And thanks to the excellent performances by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson these emotions are able to touch the heart of the viewer with all their power and at the same time with a delicate taste. As far as the theme of the divorce the movie is a critic about the process of it, on how it makes the couple waste a lot of money but most importantly on the hate it creates. Indeed the protagonists starts the process with all the good intentions to split up peacefully but when the lawyers kicks in they found themselves in a fight they don't even want. And another aspect "Marriage Story" manages to get right is that both Charlie and Nicole had their faults and they also had been disrespected in different ways and so the movie conveys the idea that in these situations usually (not everytime) the blame is on both, maybe not equally but everyone had his faults. "Marriage Story" is a great movie, with excellent acting, a touching screenplay, an immersive direction and a delicate score: check this one out!

My Review - Marriage Story My Rating 6.5 It's disappointing when I'm a fan of the main star Scarlett Johansson and I'm not rubbishing her portrayal of Nicole a sulky pouty ,irritating and self obsessed actress . Nicole want out and is not the slightest bit interested in trying to save her fading marriage even though it seemed quite obvious to me that the couple still were attracted and somewhat affectionate to each other. Then we have Adam Driver as the husband Charlie who strayed once according to Nicole ,although this is never really established it just seems that Nicole thinks she's invisible to him and not valued while it's clear if it wasn't for Charlie's success as a stage director she wouldn't have a stage career at all. Why am I even trying to explain 2 hours 17minutes of a tedious couple screaming ,yelling and outdoing each other's accusations and revisiting each bump and grind in their tedious relationship. I felt so sorry for their young son Henry and hope his Dad got custody. The acting is good especially Laura Dean as Nora Fanshaw the self interested crass Hollywood divorce lawyer who encourages Nicole to go for broke and Ray Liotta as Jay Marotta the even more greedy New York lawyer Charlie ,who never wanted to go through court and nasty legal battles engages on his behalf when his wife decides the opposite. Another Netflix one month Cinema release the film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 29 2019 and began a limited theatrical release on November 6 and exactly one month later December 6 (to qualify for Awards season) began digital streaming on Netflix to great critical acclaim but not from me . I much prefer a far better film on the subject of a marriage breakup the brilliant 1979 Kramer Vs. Kramer starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep it had style substance and two much more interesting characters than Marriage Story and told their story in 1hour and 45 minutes.

I think it is nice that Noah Baumbach met and got close to Greta Gerwig in Spring of 2009 during the filming of Grenberg, when she was playing a woman who was having an affair with a older man in a film Baumback wrote. She's 25 and the male lead is 40 in the 2009 film. Except Baumbach was married during that year of close work. Maybe knowing this helps illuminate aspects of this "story" that are totally absent in the 2019 film. When you are in the film business, as screenplay writer and gaining fame and power from a first couple of hit films, and you are getting a divorce about a year after "meeting" and working "very closely" with an actress who is much younger than you or your wife -- while your wife is pregnant -- and then divorcing your wife -- perhaps it is a good idea to write a film which that ignores those inconvenient facts. I guess. I mean if you got a typewriter why not whitewash what is transparently proffered as your story to make it about mutual alienation and not something more tawdry (and more typical behavior of men in Hollywood). But I'm sorry: as an audience member I don't want to be lied to. Therein lies the problem with Marriage Story. It was an opportunity to be honest yet it is a profoundly dishonest film. In fact it is deceptive narcissism of a very high order. Exploring the truth would have taken courage and would have been brilliant and real drama. Sure we all lie to ourselves, but frankly I don't want to hear, or watch others' lies about their marriagse. An unreliable narrator is one thing, it is a good plot device, but not when sold as a reliable one. OK on the positive side half of the acting, specifically by Johannson, is great. Adam Driver seems sedate, but he is ok in this.