Marriage Story (2019)

User Review

• 

  BarneyNuttall

  9 / 10

  This film is so compelling. Despite telling a story that everyone knows, including myself, Baumbach's writing and all the performances put us in the shoes of Nichole and Charlie. It is painful seeing their once-peaceful negotiation turn rogue, but we always knew that was going to happen. Yet, the conflicted protagonists, the sleazy Nora (played confidently by Laura Dern) and the young Henry pull us into this story.
  
  Surprisingly, while there are tears, I felt the film was more of a comedy: not a hyena laugh comedy, but one you can relate to. You see the characters make decisions that are ridiculous yet you can laugh with them as you can see yourself doing the same. There is a scene where one of our protagonists get injured. Instead of asking Henry for help, he tells him he's tired instead of explaining why he's lying on the floor. It's a stupid thing to do practically. But on a human level, we understand his motivations completely.
  
  That's what this film is fundamentally; a human story. It is about divorce but what drives the story is the human traits of those characters. Baumbach's highlights their good, humanistic traits, even beginning the film by plainly announcing them. Perhaps this is why I felt Driver had a better performance than Johansson. He always seems to bring a mixture of pathos and contentment in his performances, which shines through here.
  
  Baumbach seems to be the master of capturing the story of everyday life. Nothing spectacular happens in this film. As I said, we all know the story. Yet we watch it again, ready to go on this adventure with Nicole and Charlie with Baumbach guiding the way. Lead on Noah, lead on.

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