MARRIAGE STORY : Tuesday 26th November 2019.

'MARRIAGE STORY' which is an M Rated American comedy drama film which I saw earlier this week, is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Noah Baumbach, whose previous Directorial outings include 'The Squid and the Whale', 'Greenberg', 'Frances Ha', 'While We're Young', and 'The Meyerowitz Stories' most recently. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Venice International Film Festival in late August, and also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September where it was first runner-up for the People's Choice Award, was in the Centrepiece selection at the New York Film Festival in early October and the BFI London Film Festival at the same time. It cost just US$9M to make, and has received universal Critical acclaim so far, and is released on a limited theatrical run before digital streaming on 6th December through Netflix. 'Marriage Story' has so far picked up five award wins and another eleven nominations from around the awards and festival circuit.

The film opens up with the voiceover of Charlie Barber (Adam Driver) speaking about the things he likes most about his wife Nicole (Scarlett Johansson), and in turn then cuts to Nicole speaking about the things she likes about her husband Charlie. We then cut to the room of a mediator, as this couple is experiencing marital challenges, who has suggested they each write down what they like about one another, but Nicole is too embarrassed to read hers aloud and they decide to forego the counselling. Charlie is a successful theatre Director in New York City. His theatre company is currently producing a play that stars Nicole, a former moderately successful teen film Actress.

Nicole is offered a starring role in a TV pilot programme to be shot in Los Angeles, and she decides to leave the theatre company and temporarily move in with her mother Sandra (Julie Hagerty) in West Hollywood, taking the couple’s eight year old son Henry (Azhy Robertson) with her. Charlie elects to remain in New York, as the play is in the process of moving to Broadway. When he flies out to Los Angeles to visit his family, he is served with divorce papers by Nicole's sister Cassie (Merritt Weaver) in the kitchen of the family home.

The pair initially agree to separate amicably and forego lawyers, but Nicole then hires family lawyer Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern), who urges her to pressure Charlie into seeing his own legal counsel. Charlie first meets with Jay (Ray Liotta), a brash and expensive lawyer who charges US$900 an hour, plus an up front retainer of US$25K, and who strongly recommends Charlie to fight dirty, because the whole affair is going to end up 'somewhere between reasonable and crazy'. Baulking at the cost of hiring Jay, he decides to hire Bert Spitz (Alan Alda) instead, a retired family lawyer who is more in favour of a civil and conciliatory approach, and charges just US$450 an hour with a US$10K up front retainer.

Upon Bert's expert advice, Charlie rents an apartment in Los Angeles to be closer to his family and strengthen his custody case for Henry. Charlie wants to avoid having to appear in court, so Bert arranges a meeting with Nora and Nicole. Nora claims that Charlie refused to respect Nicole’s several wishes over the period of their marriage to move back to Los Angeles, and that Henry would prefer to stay with his mother than fly back and forth between coasts, particularly now that he is settled at a new (temporary) school, has made new friends, and is engaged in several extra curricular activities. In a private meeting, Bert advises Charlie to drop his New York residency altogether, but a frustrated and increasingly anxious Charlie refuses and decides to fire him.

Charlie wins a MacArthur Fellowship grant of US$625K (which is paid in quarterly instalments over five years) and uses his first payout to hire Jay on a retainer. The case moves to court where things turn ugly. Nora and Jay argue aggressively on behalf of Nicole and Charlie and try to show the other party in a negative light. Nora highlights Charlie’s past infidelity and emotional distance, while Jay exaggerates Nicole’s drinking habits as alcoholism. The presiding Judge is new to the area, and so seeks an adjournment while the feuding couple and their son are properly evaluated by a third party expert for a final determination over custodial rights. Meanwhile, Charlie and Nicole remain friendly out of court and share time with Henry, who is becoming frustrated and tired with the toing and froing.

Completely at odds with the legal process, the couple decides to meet in private away from the lawyers in Charlie's modest rented apartment. What starts out to be a friendly enough discussion quickly dissolves into a bitter very heated argument in which Nicole claims he doesn’t care about her and Charlie punches a wall and says he wishes she would die. He then breaks down in a flood of tears out of shame for what he just said, and for his anger and resentment towards her and apologises. Nicole consoles him. The pair after agree to relax their demands and reach an amicable agreement to finalise the divorce. Nora negotiates slightly better terms for Nicole on the basis of a 55/45 custody split over Henry in Nicole's favour.

Fast forward twelve months or so and Charlie’s play closed prematurely on Broadway, while Nicole’s pilot (which she has also Directed several episodes for) is nominated for a number of awards. Charlie informs Nicole that he’s taken a one-year UCLA residency working on two stage Productions, and as such will be living in Los Angeles full-time for the foreseeable future to be closer to Henry. Later, he discovers Henry sitting at the end of his Mum's bed reading Nicole’s list of things she likes about Charlie that she’d been too embarrassed to read. Henry asks Charlie to read it aloud to him as he is struggling with some of the words, and Charlie does so, becoming emotional as Nicole watches from the bedroom door, unknown to her ex-husband.

Adam Driver has had a busy twelve months or so it seems putting out 'BlacKkKlansman', 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote', 'The Dead Don't Die', 'The Report', this film, and the upcoming 'Star Wars : The Rise of Skywalker' due in December. Here Writer and Director Baumbach has crafted perhaps his most personal story yet, pulled together on screen by two gut wrenching, heartfelt, powerful and emotional performances from Johansson and Driver who imbue the characters with an all too grounded realism that pulls you into the centre of their personal anguish, frustrations and battle with each other. And a special mention should also go to the three lawyers as portrayed by Dern, Liotta and Alda who each come at the divorce proceedings from a different angle, and are all relatable in someway. Anyone who has been through a divorce, particularly one involving the custody of a child or children, will find something to relate to in this film as it lurches from two people who still care and have a degree of affection for each other to the depths of despair, anger and denial as experienced by that same couple. Despite the darkness of the subject matter, Baumbach also offers up some real moments of levity, zippy one liners and a sense of humour that ultimately anchors the whole sorry sad affair. The film goes to prove that in a divorce, ultimately its the lawyers who win, and whilst the feuding couple will eventually go their separate ways and settle down into new lives, the emotional scars of that deep rooted personal upheaval will always remain.

'Marriage Story' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-