Magnificent study of a relationship heading for the rocks
Charlie Barber (Adam Driver) describes wife Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) as a great listener, good citizen, fabulous mother and someone who is amazing at opening jars.
For her part, she believes he is a great dresser, self-sufficient and incredibly neat.
Together, as director and star, they have established a wellrespected New York theatre company which might just be on the cusp of something big.
However, as Noah
Baumbach’s heartwrenching and compelling drama Marriage Story (M, in select cinemas now, before streaming on Netflix from December 6) opens, rather than toasting their success, the pair are attempting to mediate their separation.
So while their latest play Electra seems bound for Broadway, Nicole is instead headed ‘‘home’’ to Los Angeles to shoot a TV pilot, taking their 8-year-old son Henry (Azhy Robertson).
Charlie is convinced the situation is only temporary – that Nicole will soon tire of making bad TV and quickly get this out of her system. She though, doesn’t quite see it that way. The longer she spends away from Charlie’s influence, the more she begins to see just how he controlled their decisionmaking and lives.
Despite previously promising that they wouldn’t involve lawyers, Nicole takes a meeting with famed divorce attorney Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern). The resulting paperwork comes as a shock to the visiting Charlie, who then attempts to avoid signing them.
But when informed that if he doesn’t hire a California lawyer, he will lose any custody rights, Charlie makes a mad scramble to find one, which leads him to the door of the ‘‘retired’’ Bert Spitz (Alan Alda).
While sympathetic to his plight, Bert also warns him about the tough road ahead. ‘‘Criminal lawyers see bad people at their best, divorce lawyers see good people at their worst.’’
With its intimate
camerawork, witty one-liners, drama that draws you in and a haunting soundtrack, Baumbach’s (The Squid and the Whale, While We’re Young) tale certainly reminds one of the best of Woody Allen’s output (think Hannah and Her Sisters, Annie Hall). However, to me, it felt more like a cross between Kramer v Kramer ,( 500) Days of Summer and TV’s The Affair (or an anti-La La Land).
That this works so magnificently and gutpunchingly is down to Baumbach’s slow-burning narrative (we’re given time to really get to know these characters) and some truly fabulous performances.
Driver is a revelation. His Charlie is complex, flawed, a genius creative who has also neglected his partner’s needs. He loves his family, but he seemingly loves his work more.
Likewise, Johansson here gives her best performance in years. It’s a reminder of the actress who burst onto the scene with Lost in Translation and then owned 2013 with the dynamic duo of Under the Skin and Her.
You can feel Nicole’s frustration at years of having her own dreams suppressed, but you can also see the horror in her eyes as this supposedly amicable process spirals out of control. And that physical evocation of the growing distance between the couple really stays with you.
There will be those who say Marriage Story feels more like a play – and they may have a point. But that also feels deliberate, the supporting cast act like a Greek chorus, commenting on the central pair’s relationship.
Eagle-eyed observers will note how the movie’s architecture evokes a stage and key scenes play out in siderooms, corners and stairways.
Likely to be a contender in the upcoming awards season, Marriage Story might well be Netflix’s best original movie yet.