OSCARS 2020: Marriage Story (2019)

Noah Baumbach is one of those notable filmmakers I’ve heard about for years, that is so prominent he’s even in the Criterion Collection, but I’ve never seen much of what he’s made. I saw “Greenberg” years ago – and kind of hated it because of my noted bias against the entire mumblecore concept – and “De Palma,” which probably isn’t a great example of what he usually makes. Baumbach’s aesthetic, as far as I can tell, is character-driven, semi-indie comedy/dramas that tend to emphasize the drama a lot more than the comedy. It seems Baumbach must’ve signed some sort of deal with Netflix. While “The Meyerowitz Stories” was critically acclaimed, the first film Baumbach made for the streaming giant, “Marriage Story” has been so sweepingly received that it has a shot at the highest film-related honor in the land. What did I, a relative Baumbach newbie, make of this one?

Charlie is a New York director of somewhat artsy-fartsy, frequently critically acclaimed and sometimes successful plays. Nicole is an actress, once an up-and-coming movie star who is now best known as the star of Charlie’s stage shows. The two have been married for many years, with a young son named Henry. Now, however, they have agreed to divorce. After initially promising not to get bogged down in too much legal stuff, the couple end up hiring aggressive lawyers. The stress of their lifestyles on opposing coasts weighs on the situation. Every mistake and lingering pain of their relationship rears its ugly heads as the two navigate their separation.

What most struck me about “Marriage Story” is the way it depicts the uncomfortable minutia of the divorce proceedings. We see Charlie awkwardly audition one set of lawyers before deciding on someone else. He has to drag his son to long, tedious meetings. The dissolving couple re-negotiates their prior agreements, which is often shown as a drawn-out, deeply painful process. Eventually, it gets ugly. “Marriage Story” never backs down from the rising unease and tension in the situation, which inevitably explodes into hideously gross courtroom arguments. (The film depicts an obvious discomfort with the way the personal becomes the public in divorce court.) This is most evident in the much meme’d-on key scene, where Charlie and Nicole have an enormous fight in his new apartment. Divorce is an endlessly difficult procedure in just about every way imaginable and “Marriage Story” is prepared to walk us through that.

Yet “Marriage Story” is not just a film about painful, highly emotional stuff. Baumbach contrasts the heavier stuff with some light, awkward comedy. Early on, Nicole, her eccentric mother, and sister walk through the various steps of how to serve Charlie his papers. A long Halloween sequence, where Charlie attempts to celebrate the holiday with his son his way doesn’t quite go as expected, produces a number of uncomfortable laughs. There’s a real sweetness to “Marriage Story” at times too. The scenes involving Henry are handled with a delicateness that is neither too sentimental nor too dismissive. The movie also concludes on a perfectly poetic note, taking “Marriage Story” out on a cathartic, touching feeling, instead of focusing on bitterness or discomfort.

That the film has attracted so much attention from the Academy is not a surprise, because “Marriage Story” is, first and foremost, an actor’s movie. Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver get to show off all the range of their considerable talent. Johansson, in fact, might give a career best performance. She is a bunch of tightly wound nerves throughout much of “Marriage Story,” Nicole clearly trying to keep that simmering resentment under control, to remain as professional as possible in the face of deeply personal conflict. When that anger finally boils over, it is deeply satisfying to see. Driver, meanwhile, clearly invest a huge amount of emotion in his performance. The way he reacts during important moments – the reading of a key letter, an impromptu sing-along session – shows a sense of physical control and understanding of the character that represents everything good about acting. Both are fantastic.

While the lead performances are subtle and nuanced, the supporting cast of “Marriage Story” is loaded with colorful, sometimes even cartoonish performances. Which is sort of a weird choice, considering how even the main story’s most melodramatic moments are fairly naturalistic. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Watching Laura Dern ham it up as Nicole’s increasingly impassioned lawyer is lots of fun. Her big speech about societal expectations for motherhood vs. fatherhood is clearly a gleeful moment, if it’s also obviously the Oscar Clip moment. Wallace Shawn is, naturally, delightful in his brief role as one of Charlie’s actors. Yet Ray Liotta giving a typically macho and blustery performance, or Alan Alda acting like a folksy old man, definitely feels like it jives with the overall reality of the movie.

All things considered though, “Marriage Story” is a very good motion picture. Baumbach’s skills as a visual filmmaker are professional and restrained, even if the framing of the shots and the placement of the camera are clearly meaningful. As a writer, he sometimes loads scenes down with too much cleverness, like the especially on-the-nose symbolism of a significant cut Driver gives himself. People have already happily read into “Marriage Story,” assuming Baumbach drew from his own divorce with Jennifer Jason Lee for inspiration. (He’s currently partnered with fellow 2020 nominee, Greta Gerwig.) Who’s to say? Still, I have a more positive impression of him as a filmmaker now and think this is a pretty good movie too. [7/10]