Divorced from their actions
Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver play a divorcing couple in “Marriage Story.”
Marriage Story
K (out of 4) Starring Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Azhy Robertson, Ray Liotta, Julie Hagerty, Alan Alda, Mary Hollis Inboden and Wallace Shawn. Written and directed by Noah Baumbach. Opens Friday at TIFF Bell Lightbox. 136 minutes. STC
Some reviewers are calling Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” a dramedy, a hybrid of drama and comedy.
It’s not. This emotionally draining movie is about a tragedy, no ifs, ands or buts. It’s not quite as bleak as an Ingmar Bergman film, although the late Swedish auteur is clearly an influence on Baumbach, as well as on Robbie Ryan’s austere cinematography. But it leaves similar scorch marks upon the mind and heart.
Baumbach, drawing on some of the experiences and feelings of his own divorce, gives a humane account of the inhumanity of marital breakdown. It’s deeply expressed and his best work since “The Squid and the Whale,” his 2005 film that canvassed childhood memories of his parents’ divorce.
“Marriage Story” stars Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver — both superb and awards worthy — as lovers torn asunder as much by fate as by desire or deed.
Their characters are no longer happy about being together, although they once were joyfully wed. They’re the devoted parents of Henry (Azhy Robertson), their eight-year-old son.
This is plain from an opening sequence, set to Randy Newman’s charming score. It’s momentarily confusing — are they splitting or not? — in which Nicole (Johansson) and Charlie (Driver) describe what it is they love about each other.
“He loves being a dad,” Nicole says.
“She’s a mother who plays, who really plays,” Charlie says.
Each describes the other as “very competitive,” which offers a clue to what’s about to unfold, and why.
Their separation and what comes after is almost a surprise to them, more so to Charlie than to Nicole. He’s the selfabsorbed director of a New York theatre company; Nicole used to be part of the troupe, and in fact left a promising career in Los Angeles to join it and be with the man she adored.
Now she has another chance at Hollywood stardom — how often does that happen? — by way of a lead role in a TV pilot that will likely lead to a series. This means relocating to L.A., which Charlie is dead set against. She decides to move anyway, much to his dismay.
Baumbach observes the contradictory details big and small as this once-happy union frays and heads towards total failure.
“It’s not as simple as not being in love anymore,” Nicole observes. This becomes clear when lawyers get involved.
Nicole gets herself a hotshot attorney (Laura Dern, brilliant) who treats marital breakups as a blood sport. Charlie tries to counter first with a nice guy lawyer (Alan Alda) and then a bad guy (Ray Liotta). He always seems to be one move behind in a brutal chess game.
And what about Henry? He’s the collateral damage. Such a lovely couple! How did this happen?
“Marriage Story” presents divorce as being akin to a terminal disease or fatal accident, a tragedy that doesn’t discriminate, doesn’t play favourites and ultimately makes no sense at all.
It’s one of the best movies of 2019. But it leaves you feeling that love is the most fragile of all human conditions.