Marriage Story – 2019
This was a good enough drama, but I don’t know. It doesn’t seem to deserve all the attention it got. I didn’t see how this movie about a marriage that is ending was any more outstanding than other films that deal with the same subject. Was the story somehow deeper than its peers? Was the acting better? I don’t really think so. I’m not saying that any of those things were bad. Far from it. They were pretty good. But was it enough to earn it a Best Picture nomination? I’m not sure.
The movie starred Scarlet Johansson and Adam Driver as Nicole and Charlie Barber, a couple who have been married for several years. They have a son who becomes the main point of contention during the separation. At first, they want to go through the divorce without the use of lawyers, but that idea soon goes by the wayside. Nicole hires Nora Fanshaw, played by Laura Dern, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Charlie is forced to get a lawyer too. First, he tries an inexpensive divorce attorney named Bert Spitz, played by Alan Alda. But when Bert urges him to give up custody rights for his son, he hires the expensive Jay Marotta, played by Ray Liotta.
When the lawyers really got involved and started demanding more and more things in court, it all seemed to get out of hand. It was here that the movie’s most intense drama played out. There was one scene in particular when Nicole and Charlie got into a real shouting match, hurling the most hurtful things they could come up with at each other. I think it was really this scene that got the movie its Best Picture nomination. Adam Driver really shined in this scene and stood out as a very good actor.
I also really liked how the movie began. It started off with a voice-over from Charlie as he describes all the things about his wife that he loves. All the while, we watch footage of her in her normal life. Then it switches to Nicole doing a similar voice-over as we watch similar footage of Charlie in his daily life. But the opening sequence ends as we learn that It isn’t simple narration. It is the couple reading written statements in a marriage councilor’s office. But what it did, right away, was introduce us to the characters, while telling us why they loved each other in the first place. It allowed the story to start at the divorce without having to take half an hour to show us the couple meeting, falling in love, marrying, sharing their lives together, and so on. Very clever.
An important character who was central to the main plot was the child, Henry Barber, played by Azhy Robertson. The boy did a good enough job with a difficult part to play, but he was a little one-note, and for that I blame the script, not the actor. But I think that was alright. Children are rarely very dynamic. I thought he did a particularly good job with the scene at the end when he was trying to read a letter. Making it sound like he was believably struggling with reading must have been a bit of a challenge, and Robertson did just fine.
I also have to make mention of a few other actors who did a good job. A favorite of mine, Julie Haggerty played the role of Nicole’s mother, Sandra, and her sister, Cassie, was played by Merritt Wever. Everyone did a good job, and I have no complaints in the film’s acting.
If I had any complaints about the film as a whole, it would be the pacing. It was just too slow, and if you look at the movie from beginning to end, not much happened. There were too many moments where a character would go into an extended speech. It was like the movie was trying a little too hard to be deep. But I get it. It was a drama, and not an action film. But even a well-written drama can have a little more intensity or a more engaging pace. This movie, while good, was just too slow for my tastes. The problem is that I’m not sure what I would do to make the movie better.
When it comes down to it, Marriage Story is just not my favorite kind of movie to watch, but what do I know? Critics really loved it. In fact, it has a score of ninety-five percent of Rotton Tomatoes, and a weighted average score of ninety-three out of a hundred on Metacritic, indicating “Universal Acclaim”. Obviously, people love this film, and if a slow and mildly intense drama is your cup of tea, you’ll like it, too. It has some really good performances, an easy to follow story, and paints a fairly realistic picture of a divorce.
And one last thought on the film, which has to do with Adam Driver’s performance. For me, he was the real stand-out of the film. The only things I have seen him in are the Star Wars franchise, playing the part of Kylo Ren, and BlackKklansman, playing a police officer. He was good in both of those rolls, but here we saw a much more emotional side to his acting and he really stepped up to the plate. He always seemed to be really invested in the performance. He earned a well-deserved nomination for the Best Actor Oscar, though he did not win. Still, I expect we are going to be seeing a lot more of him in the future.