Here's our mutual favorite. The unexpectedly worn-out social theme of the collapse of a single family, and perhaps, I stress perhaps, the entire institution, sounded fresh, bright, whirlwind and even reassuring. Ever since Kramer vs. Kramer, the theme has been beloved by filmmakers. It was then that the value of this institution was redefined. Of course, there were great movies before that. But it's all candied and schematic. And so the directors vying to make films about the fact that the family is no longer fulfilling its function, no one loves anyone and everyone just lives with each other. From bravura comedies like The War of the Roses to shrill dramas with thriller elements like Hungry Hearts (and again with Adam Driver). Even one of last year's winners "The Wife" about the same.
What's new? Baumbuck said. I don’t really like such stories. However, this is delayed from the first frame. Perfectly removed and correctly placed all the accents. Without excessive tear and unnecessary intentional tragic notes, and light elements of comedy made the story even more authentic.
Even the Russian translation of the title of the film in some ages most correctly reflects the essence. It's a marriage story, not a family story. After all, the family was already over before the story began. We see only pleasant and unpleasant memories of love and happiness. All the dead families have them. Valuable qualities, pleasant little things, facial expressions and a smile in the eyes, etc. Everything that grabs, cements and holds. He does, but not forever. Nothing lasts forever. Rarely is the basis of a relationship maintained to the end. How this happens is a mystery even to the direct participants themselves. Neither children, nor sex, nor common interests save.
But our story is not just about that. The film focuses on the social background of the problem of divorce and the collapse of yesterday’s family. This is the subtle moment when the family has already disappeared in fact, but a strong social trap remains. Marriage is right, and marriage must be dissolved. Perform legal procedures. Sharing property and, as it does not sound sacrilegious, children. Plus, hearts are broken too. There is a trace of the pain of resentment, disappointment in the former idol and fear of a future without him/her. Both spouses are right in their claims and both are equally guilty of not working out.
If you need only two for a family, you always need a third for a barracks. The third is a figure blurred and has many incarnations. Society, court, lawyer, intermediaries. The last witnesses to the sinking of the ship. All those that help or hinder. Ideally, this third is an impartial, emotionless arbiter. He decides that there is no family, only a marriage that must be “correctly” completed. The value of past relationships is eroded. Society has created this social institution and it decides what to do with it. You don't matter. This may be true because it no longer belongs to you. The couple washed their hands and gave everything to the most powerful mechanism of termination of marriage. A strong experienced millstone who will grind everything that made up the life of once loving people. They couldn't keep their cell. Move over and let the "experienced players" handle it. Again, that's probably true. You can't, step aside. The figure of a divorce lawyer is shown in the film is caricatured and very authentic. They're cynical and cruel. Nevertheless, the hand of society should be so. Otherwise, everyone is mired in eternal quarrels and mutual resentment. The brilliant scene of the film, when the characters Driver and Johansson try to agree on their own, without intermediaries. It all ends with wild accusations and death wishes. Can you blame lawyers for being like that? Of course you can. However, we will give them a chance to rehabilitate themselves, because those they represent are not able to solve their problems on their own. To paraphrase the famous postulate: we deserve the lawyers we have.
Actors. It's just a miracle. Finally, we see Driver and Johansson not in the heroic images of various eternal, sometimes already annoying, franchises, but in real acting. They show what made them the serious actors we loved before all of Star Wars and Marvel. They are simple and truthful in every emotion. The viewer sympathizes with him or her. She's worried about them. Maybe a little hopeful, then everything will be fine. It will, but individually. Dern. There's nothing to say. The actress demonstrates such a level of acting that it is time to do a spin-off for her heroine, the cynical Goddess "on red spires." Togo and look, she's gonna stab someone in the throat with Mona Lisa's cute smile. She's been doing really well for the last ten years. Every role in the top ten. Her time. The Oscar will be well deserved for at least one monologue about double standards in gender relations.
That’s all I wanted to add to this film. The main thing is that he does not scare future spouses.
We decided to watch, impressed by the high rating and praise.
Disappointed.
It's a little household drama where, if you think about it, nothing really happens. Seriously, if you briefly describe the film, in a word, it will be the word “small”.
Plus, the film is also delayed (for example, it is completely unclear why two musical inserts with the main characters are needed).
At the same time, I would like to note a very good game by Scarlett Johansson. It’s good to see that she’s a real actress, not just a woman with a beautiful appearance.
People meet, people fall in love, get married... and get divorced. So in Marriage Story: Charlie is a talented theater director, Nicole is an actress in his troupe. After 10 years of marriage, their relationship began to rapidly slide to the abyss. Accusations of selfishness, betrayal fill every next day of life together. Ahead of them waiting for a difficult divorce process, separation and the struggle for custody of the child.
Who's right and who's wrong? Alternately, we will justify, indignantly condemn, and scattered Nicole and clean Charlie. But divorce is the only, though not the most pleasant way out. It seems that the gender of the viewer will play a role in taking sides. However, divorce is the only, although not the most pleasant way out.
Of course, Scarlett Johannson and Adam Driver, who played Charlie and Nicole, have rediscovered themselves as dramatic actors: the authenticity of their emotions affects the viewer so much that we begin to see their tears and smiles as our own.
Johansson with his intense restraint, often breaking into a quiet cry in the pillow. Driver with a gentle and touching performance of Being Alive - their game is permeated with a natural experience.
Feelings of excitement are heightened when both begin fighting for custody of their son alongside lawyers. They were played with bitchy fury by Laura Dern and Ray Liotta. The law of divorce often resonates with the desire to remain friends and maintain a normal relationship. The absurdity of the situation makes all the participants in the history pretty nervous. But still tenderness prevails over the desire to take revenge, humiliate or hit harder.
Theatrical chamberiness and warmth deepen us into the psychology of the main characters from the very first minutes of the film. "Why do I love Nicole/Charlie?" These questions should be answered by the spouse at the reception with a therapist at the beginning. It turns out that the highest feelings are manifested in everyday life. Charlie loved (loves?) Nicole for her extreme compassion and distraction at the same time. One finds in the other what one lacks.
And all the shortcomings, complexes are clear almost immediately, from the first meeting, but the feelings cover the veil of the tired lonely eye.
Intimacy and focus on a single story is reflected in the dampness of the operator’s work, and in the sun-drenched interiors, devoid of details, and in the clothes, makeup of the actors. And the music of Randy Newman does not coincidentally echo the Beatles style from the albums Revolver or Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (after watching, pay attention and listen to this). The sketch form of “Marriage Story” has no logical beginning or end: everything is just like in life.
Noah Baumbach tells the story of a disintegrated family who learned to move on. This film is not a manual or a strict notation, but a medicine for mental wounds, suitable not only for those who have experienced the severity of divorce on their own shoulders, but also for any modern person.
9 out of 10
Talented theater director Charlie and his theater actress Nicole are experiencing a crisis of their marriage and decide to divorce without really listening to each other, which led to a gulf in understanding. Lawyers on both sides only worsen the couple's relationship. And now, loving people enter the threshold of war, the realization of the meaninglessness of which will overtake them too late.
The main roles were played by Adam Driver, familiar to many in Star Wars, and Scarlett Johansson, who escaped from the captivity of Marvel. The actors breathed life into the characters. The characters were very believable. You believe in their feelings, in their behavior, in the situation they find themselves in. The tape is never a melodrama. This is an extremely sincere film, the director of which himself survived the divorce, and therefore was able to show everything on the screen as honestly as possible.
The picture has a very beautiful soundtrack, perfectly complementing what is happening on the screen. The camera work is not deliberately tortured, and like all aspects of this film works on the sense of reality.
The tape teaches us how important it is to listen to loved ones, to be interested in their feelings and not to conceal their own. It teaches that during a quarrel it is worth stopping and thinking: “Is the dispute worth a crippled relationship?”
9 out of 10
I will say right away that I did not know who the director of this film was and did not expect anything from the film. The rating was very surprised and therefore even slightly intrigued, what can be presented to the viewer.
To begin with, by the middle of the film, I never left the thought that it would be better to go revisit ' Greenberg' rather than spend the remaining time on 'Marriage Story'. What was my surprise when it turned out that the director is the author of the script ' Greenberg' and in general, throughout the film I watched a copy of the previous work.
Let me tell you what I didn’t like:
1) I didn’t like the fact that the backstory of the conflict is devoted to such a tiny, which is extremely surprising where the drama came from.
2) The lyrics in this film are so much that at the end you realize that the picture could be 20-30% shorter and the plot would not be affected in any way.
(3) At some point, it seems that this is a theatrical script and it is quite possible to put two characters in one room and all 2 hours they could read the text and nothing would change.
(4) Topic ' Child' in the family at all not disclosed. The child here is like a vestige of the plot: after all, people get divorced and it is logical that the viewer should empathize with the child, but no, here he is like a ballast in an argument ' Uncle and Aunt'. If he has signs of autism, then it was necessary to somehow tell the viewer, if the conflict is not all based on him, then why would the heroes argue about the topic of upbringing?
(5) And also in the plot there is so much lawyer theme that at some point it seems - this is a master class of the law faculty about divorce proceedings.
(6) Of course, you can see how the audience is pressed with emotional scenes. Yes, they are good, but on the basis of them and sculpted the whole plot, which devalues the beginning of the picture.
7) Also, in my opinion, the transitions between the scenes of the film were sometimes inappropriate, as if we were in the theater, where at the end of the next ' act' slowly go out the spotlights.
(8) The music is ugly. Are we watching a soap drama from the 80s?
As a result, the casting for the film is excellent. The acting is very exciting. The plot is protracted and not justified by its 'dramatic'. another film ' without beginning and end' where the ellipsis is more annoying and disappointing than it makes standing applaud.
Take a look at 'Greenberg'
About the film ' Marriage Story' I learned from the selection of author films for the past year. I had two reasons to watch this movie: Adam Driver and high rating. I sympathize with the driver, just because. But with the rating of the film all the more interesting, after reading the abstract, I thought: um, what will there be such a plot twist that everyone praises this film with such a banal plot?
The film is almost two and a half hours long, I watched it only for principle, and for the sake of Adam Driver, who this time was not too impressed. For me, this film was a disappointment of the year.
In the center of the plot is the wife of Charlie and Nicole, who, in addition to the usual family life, are closely connected with joint creative work: Charlie is a theater director, Nicole is an actress in his theater.
The problem with this film is that the viewer is offered to watch the characters from the moment when the conflict already exists and begins to rapidly gain momentum. We look at things through Nicole’s eyes, and then we look at things from Charlie’s point of view. It turns out a kind of swing, where the spouses in their accusatory dialogues restore for the viewer the events that led them to divorce. But empathy does not work for any of them. Why? Because we're only given a subjective view of what happened by Charlie and Nicole. I don't believe it was like Nicole says, she's too emotional and insecure, with a penchant for drama. And I don't believe Charlie, who's got a job first and maybe his family isn't even second. The viewer is not allowed to look at events from a neutral point of view to make up his opinion about the heroes, and not imposed by hysterical swearing.
Throughout the film, I was tormented by the question: why are they suing? Why Charlie's son? I didn’t see the father’s affection for his child, I had the impression that their son was just a side effect of their bond, no more. In fact, Charlie proved this when, out of his arrogance, he hired the right lawyer and squandered a significant amount of money that could go to their son’s college. Nicole is no better - through the courts for her son, she avenges treason, and again spends money that could help in the future child.
The child is a separate subject. I still don't get it, is he mentally retarded? Encouragement to go to the bathroom big when he's already going to school? What? Really? The child is clearly in trouble because he doesn't care what's going on around him. Throughout the film, their son never asked his parents why they were getting divorced, never cried because of the fact of divorce, he was not hysterical about moving. Nothing.
Soundtrack. Why is this soulful family music in the background straight from the 60s? In my opinion, it is disgusting.
Over. Parents who take revenge on each other, hiding behind a child and not even realizing it, and a child who does not care. It's a boring movie.
Starting to watch "Marriage Story" can not get rid of the comparison of "Kramer vs. Kramer" on the level of heat and the level of acting. The plot of both films is very simple.
The heroine Scarlet Johansson decides to return to her native state and continue her acting career in cinema, her husband, played by Adam Driver, does not quite understand, and what did his wife lack? How did they get to where they came from?
In general, this is about the fact that people do not know how to talk to each other, keep silent “for the sake of his/her peace”, persuade themselves that others have even worse and still “skis do not go”. So here, everything comes out during the divorce process, when the couple is forced to negotiate custody of their son and undergo evaluation by a social worker.
But, most importantly, the film is shot in the manner of theatrical action, there is no sense of the film in terms of playfulness, entertainment, the camera is close enough to the actors, and their eyes are too close to us to lie. This is Scarlett’s strongest, perhaps even strongest acting work, which deserves a nomination or a win for Best Actress.
Separately, I want to mention the actress playing a lawyer, Laura Dern. She's a big little liar, she's great here!
In general, if the divorce story is close and still painful, then it is not necessary, it is too frank and honest filmed.
The rest, who loves the theater, appreciates acting and directing of the highest class to view is a must!
It is a pity that the insertion with the song of Adam Driver was superfluous and slightly blurred the impression, apparently the director decided to equalize the characters and let both sing. Only a family of three women who are connected or want to be connected to the cinema, go to auditions and boast about their filmography fit in, a piece of the musical. Why did my husband sing about it, why?
Balancing between drama and tragicomedy and remaining an inexplicably accurate sketch from life, Marriage Story is a depiction of what Generation Y marriage and divorce now looks like, presented by its defining actors and director.
It’s impossible to dismiss the associations that this film evokes with Kramer vs. Kramer, but the two stories are contemporary and completely different. If in the eighties the heroine Meryl Streep wanted freedom from the role of wife and housewife, the heroine of Scarlett Johansson, Nicole, this freedom has more than, moreover, is realized creatively: she is a mother, and wife, and also an actress. But here comes another story: she is not happy in her relationship with her husband-director, because she is only a conditional muse, she is assigned the role of the wife of a genius, who is able to realize her own abilities only thanks to the talent of her husband, and her own professional expression she is already deprived. As Laura Dern’s lawyer puts it, “She owns half of his genius.” Nicole and this line of discovery of a woman as an independent creator are given much less time than the main conflict of the film, but it expresses one of the most relevant discourses about a woman realizing herself creatively. After all, there are still a lot of questions about whether a woman can be a genius around this topic, but Nicole from Marriage Story has already been nominated for an Emmy for directing, while in our reality the same award is cut by Phoebe Waller Bridge and other talented women, and her ex-husband realizes that all this time he was married to an equal creator. She's finally his equal.
Although the marriage of Charlie and Nicole could be called equal in itself, if it were not for the aforementioned shadow of genius in which Nicole had to be, because all the modern elements are here: they share responsibilities around the house, Charlie prepares and participates in the upbringing of their son as much as the mother, he is even cleaner than her, any post-Soviet person would already think that these are incredibly progressive people, but in our reality, such relationships already come into order. Then we learn that equality is imaginary, and because of this shadow, Nicole loses her identity, which she must find by the end of the film. Their whole life is arranged the way Charlie intended it, and Nicole's opinion is never taken into account. Then they decide to divorce.
Charlie and Nicole want to divorce friends, without scandal and division of property, although the lawyers warn them that it can be a ruthless process, and they try to keep their own voices of sober reason until the promise is fulfilled, and the couple is not up to their ears in the shit poured out of the envelope with the divorce papers. Their inner tension just jumps to the peak the moment they decide to talk like serious adults, and that’s when they break down, start yelling at each other and dumping all the claims that have accumulated over the years. They have already got into a lawyer’s fight, from which it is difficult to get out, and they are chosen only because they love each other. This is why they parted peacefully.
They do not love as before, as newlyweds or lovers love each other, but they love spiritually and still sadly, which makes them cry in the final. They still feel cared for and worried. They still feel like family and root for each other, the film says. How we hurt each other, how we still stay together, and how difficult it is to break up without hurting someone, without cutting or cutting (another image of the film).
Barbers are good people. Not really. They’re not good or bad, they’re our friends you care about and feel sorry for, even though they might say or do to each other, because in their words you hear what you might say or think. Their problems are your problems, even if you do not have a single marriage behind you and certainly do not have children. Each of them, sometimes sad, sometimes hilarious, breathes life in a way that probably could have happened in the next room (and perhaps did). It also reveals the incredible dramatic talents of Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver.
Noah Baumbach rhymes his work with a touching verlibra. He takes the character away from the frame by the nearest wall so that he speaks through the open door, we see the characters through the ajar gap, and this creates a sense of presence, chamberliness and closeness of the story to us.
One of the most memorable shots for me is when Nicole and Charlie close the gate together, and for a split second they look at each other, and there is a wall between them. In general, such a wall periodically arises between them, giving rise to their constant separation, and this glance is like the idea of the refrain of the whole film: “Maybe we can save everything?” Maybe we should quit the divorce right now. But they understand that this is not destined to happen, that their relationship died without the possibility of rehabilitation, it remains only to preserve the warmth that arises when you remember why you loved and loved this person. For the child, for the other and for myself.
Noah Baumbuck, has anyone heard that name before? I doubt this, but this masterpiece helped him to make a furor and become famous throughout the world.
Marriage Story is an incredibly real and life drama about the divorce of two people who are no longer satisfied with the life they chose. The film, in which Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson reveal their acting potential one hundred percent and may well qualify for an Oscar as performers of the main male and female roles. These two embody on the screen some incredible chemistry between their characters, they willingly believe, empathize and spend with them their divorce path from beginning to end.
Charlie (Adam Driver) is a director in her theater, Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) is an actress who plays in her husband's theater. After they begin to experience a crisis in their relationship, they try to do something, solve this problem with standard trips to a family psychologist, but strangely it does not help them and it is time for divorce.
Quite a simple plot and a simple plot, in which you will not see some incredible plot twists, but it is his simplicity that he bribes. But not to fall in love with the main characters who are registered here is simply amazing, you just can not. From the first scene, Noah Baumbuck reveals the characters in a very interesting way in a session with a psychologist. Every conversation between Charlie and Nicole feels like you're part of the conversation.
Of course, the most important advantage of the Marriage Story is the extreme level of acting and the fullness of the characters. For in addition to the characters of Driver and Johansson, there are Laura Dern and Ray Liotta in the images of daring lawyers trying at any cost to snatch a victory in court for their client also attract attention.
As a result, we get a very kind, sincere and real movie about real relationships, about what couples experience during difficult periods of their lives, how they cope with these difficulties, about the relationship between parents and children. And most importantly, how people who have gone through tons of dirt in lawsuits, legal battles, division of property and the like, but at the same time managed to preserve that same love and most importantly both remained human. I highly recommend watching in the original, I am afraid that dubbing can kill the chemistry that the actors managed to embody.
Chronicle of the Disintegration of Human Relationships
The subject of divorce is always painful. One way or another, most of the world’s population is familiar with this phenomenon, which makes it incredibly close to human perception. The viewer is presented with a picture that illustrates what happens every single day with millions of families, not just a divorce, but a struggle for the love of a child.
The film is remarkable for how much it reveals really important topics. Reluctance to listen to each other, which eventually becomes the cause of brewing 'kashi', self-sacrifice of their interests in the name of the interests of the partner and a blind desire to keep close, a desire that harms not only adults, but also the child.
Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver struck me to the core. Their heroes are living examples of the gradual atrophy of love for each other, while experiencing selfless respect. Each of the characters goes a long way from the first minutes of the film to the final credits, and each is revealed in a new way. One, perhaps, remains the eternal truth that ' Always the fault of two'.
' Marriage Story' is a tragedy that shows us where the unwillingness to talk and listen to each other leads. The film shows us all the mistakes that should not be made in a relationship and at the same time proves that there is always a way out.
The film is incredibly touching and dramatic. He will want to return to him one way or another.
Noah Baumbach, with all his script-staged virtuosity of the Zaga cinematic prestigiator, turns a deft trick with the viewer, making you see how insanely charming, loving, supportive and respectful people under the influence of drying legal voodoo are transformed into repulsive and demonstratively tooth-clawing zombies, virtuoso guided by shaman lawyers.
Triumvirate from Baumbak, Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver during a two-hour timekeeping skillfully perform on the strings of the spectator soul requiem for simple human and family happiness, which is somehow quite thoughtlessly and carelessly sacrificed to Themis, whose representatives are more concerned with selfish domination over the competitor than the desire to hear and feel the aspirations of their confused and confused wards.
The hypnotic melody of this family drama, despite the predominance of minor notes, ends with albeit slightly melancholic, but incredibly encouraging and inspiring chords. Hell, under this symphony, it seems impossible to keep your tear glands in check. The narrative of “Marriage Story” consists of a series of episodes, incinerating the spectator’s gut with its energy. Johannson and Driver are so lost in their characters that there is a voyeuristic feeling of shameful observation and, as a result, unwitting involvement in the unfolding family drama.
Scenario and directorial honing of the action, incredible acting dedication (Scarlett’s resume just screams about the lack of such roles), frightening relevance and deep emotional involvement in what is happening make Marriage Story one of the most unforgettable and important film adventures of this year.
Verdict: Kulik is delighted with this swamp!
About what? Nicole (Johanson) is an actress in the theater of her husband-director Charlie (Driver), they are in the process of divorce. Nicole believes that she completely dissolved and lost herself working in the theater of her husband, her husband does not understand and does not accept her as an independent person. And here we go. They have to come to terms with the fact that they will no longer be together. How to divide your son and property. Stay good parents. The film is going to the Oscars, is it worthy of the award? Nominations at least. Yes, the story is banal and who passed, will not learn anything new. For me it was a bit painful to watch their showdowns, it's a very sad movie. So why is it worth watching? This is Johansson and Driver - they're great actors, their play is sincere and nervous at times, they're exhausted and knocked down by the table and it elicits sympathy. Strong dialogue and great music.
For who? The benefit for those looking for a reason is not divorced.
Noah Baumbuck does not invent the wheel with his story, but does what seems comfortable for most - shows old household problems, but with a new look. And with the “innovation” many can argue, the story of the two main characters is inspired by stories from textbooks, some eccentric details both characters do not have, and the chronology of events is quite predictable and expected.
But still some episodes of "Marriage Story" are worth attention and distinguish the picture from the rest of the marriage showdowns in the cinema. First, the main characters represent a whole movement of creative individualists, whether they are concentrated in theater plays or in front of camera lenses. The film demonstrates the difficulties of the actors in their personal lives in finding the right balance between family and career.
It is also worth highlighting the acting work of Driver and Johansson, if the latter has long gained professional stability by starring a lot from famous directors, then as for Driver, the actor is very confidently gaining recognition and demonstrates his skills in completely different genres - whether it is an independent zombie movie or a space saga, it seems that this actor can enrich any character regardless of genre.
"Marriage Story" has its ups and downs in the course of the development of the plot, but the main thing is that the last word adds meaning to everything told before. The example of the two main characters confirms the view that when war – no matter who fired first, there is no way back.
7 out of 10
I don’t know, maybe in America they’ve been used to Netflix for a long time and it’s convenient for most people that you don’t have to go to the theater. I, like the Academy Awards, am a conservative at heart, so it is important for me to see the picture on the big screen to understand that I have a really meaningful movie in front of me. But as the saying goes, only fools and dead don't change their minds???? "Marriage Story" is an example of a big movie. It's a completely banal story, told in an amazing way. The film is more like a play, I think it's intentional. Embodying the story on the screen, the director was inspired by the works of the great Ingmar Bergman, from the obvious – “Scenes from married life”. In the center of the plot are two - Charlie and Nicole (like Bergman - Johan and Marianne), all the other characters are just tools for cutting their story. And their problems are similar, as are the problems of most thinking and loving couples on this earth. Protracted shots, close-ups and long multi-step dialogues. That's what you can buy a viewer like me. When the dialogue lasts 10-15 minutes and the hero speaks, speaks, speaks.
Lately, the same thought has been bothering me, and it may be unavoidable, and the only right decision would be to make it, but my anxiety does not recede from the inevitability - we are fatally alone. Even if we surround ourselves with a lot of like-minded people, in a circle of colleagues and family, next to a loved one, we still remain closed within the boundaries of our skull. If you can find someone who shares your beliefs, agrees with your theses, and solemnly nods his head in response, he is still unable to share the experiences that unfold within, to understand and feel the thoughts that are kept locked in the one-man consciousness. In addition to total loneliness, I am afraid of the chasm that grows on opposite sides between the closest people. The film "Marriage Story" just tells about it.
The premiere of the new picture Noah Baumbach took place at the festival in Venice, where she was the main participant of the competition program, bypassing cinemas, in early December she came out on Netflix. Maybe I’m getting more sentimental, and the stories about relationships start to worry me, but a lot of critics can’t lie, associations and councils have already handed out winning places in their ratings and nominations.
The film tells the story of a couple from the city of New York, where he (Adam Driver) - theater director, she (Scarlett Johansson) - his favorite actress. When viewed externally, they are a strong pair and a perfect creative tandem, but if you bring the situation closer to each of the characters, you can see two opposite sides, two incompatible views of current life. To settle misunderstandings, the spouses turn to a family therapist, but this does not save, the situation is ripe for divorce, the division of rights to the child, the connection of lawyers, and now old grievances and nauseous details of family life have already surfaced. The viewer is gradually presented with different views on the finale of the love story, and the whole action is worked out so emotionally and reverently that a lump of sadness approaches the throat.
It was a wise decision to entrust the main roles of Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver. Scarlett has not had such a deep game for a long time, in Marriage Story the actress demonstrates all her facets of acting talent with high success. Adam Driver, on the contrary, is a pamper of author’s cinema, but in the new role he shines especially brightly. While watching, it is impossible to take the side of one of the characters, they both seem clear, get sympathy, make empathy and cause alienation. Enough reliable and honest scenes of heat, in which my eyes began to moisten, and this phenomenon is not frequent, please note, which means that the work of directors and performers is worth something.
The film is presented very personally, and its at least individual episodes will seem familiar to many (this also makes us tense). How far can we go to hurt each other and hurt each other? Will there be regret? What happens after the oath to live happily ever after?
I would describe Marriage Story as a big universal drama that is presented as real life. I am waiting for the Oscar nomination (I am confident that it will be) and secretly entertain myself with sweet hopes that I will never have to pass such a test.
An entertaining case of Noah Baumbak called “Marriage story” (Marriage story) can rightly be called one of the most promising films, not only for the director himself, but also for the sophisticated audience within this film year. Here complex characters Scarlett Johansson (actress from Los Angeles and mother of the year) and Adam Driver (New York director and director in the chamber theater) play in one play, but understand it in completely different ways. Yes, and look at life in different ways: already recognized genius, he bathes in the rays of glory, and his assistant and part-time muse and wife, she tries to remind him that she also has her own ambitions and plans.
The result of diametrically opposite thoughts of two people: divorce. And all would be fine if not for the adored son.
Noah filmed the process of dissolution of marriage and division of property in the style of Kafkaesque "Process". It seems that the divorce will never end. At some point, it is obvious that the spouses have already forgotten why and for what purpose it was started. Nor do the lawyers accompanying the heartbreaking case realize it - for the most part, they are trying to fulfill themselves in front of each other in their legal abilities.
Closer to the finale, it becomes clear why divorce is not the cornerstone of the film: the characters love each other so much that even swearing, they do not stop thinking about the comfort and welfare of the “former” soul mate. It is as if their ship will one day sail in the same direction. And there is a logical question: could the divorce process bring the spouses to their senses and show that everything is not over? Not more than yes. The director is just more interested in exploring the depth of feelings of the characters through the prism of the point of no return, and divorce is only a necessary “litmus test”.
Moreover, when analyzing any case, even such a banal one, one wants to understand who in the end first gave the crack. But in fact, the director is as loyal as possible: we can't say that about Charlie or Nicole. Until the last moment, you believe that you will witness the guilt of one and the innocence of the other. In the end, you just accept them as they are.
Turning to the form in which the feelings of Nicole and Charlie were inscribed, you can see the maximum asceticism of the frame. Warm tones give a feeling of homely cozy cinema and give even greater tenderness to the words that the heroes once devoted to each other.
8 out of 10
First negative review? A magnet for minuses. But I can't keep quiet!
Dear Frances & #39 is one of my favorites. Therefore praised 'Marriage story' waited and anticipated.
The film is bad, but only in comparison with 'Sweet Frances' and odes of critics. If it were a film of some other director, it would be restrained to praise.
Where in 'Marriage Story' Conflict and Drama? What would happen to Charlie if he lost the trial? It's okay. Charlie and Nicole can get back together, then break up, and get back together. Cheers! But why should I feel sorry for them?
But this is a film about ordinary people, a sketch from real life... so fans of the picture will say! Simplicity does not mean conflict-free and lack of drama! Here are examples: 'Betty Blue', 'Murderous Summer', 'Nude', 'Buffalo 66'. There people are even easier, but you empathize with the characters, you literally feel the tragedy with nerves. Okay, there is 'Pornographic connections'. There is no tragedy, but it is interesting to observe the characters in their unobtrusive everyday life. A & #39; Marriage Story' imposes Shakespearean scale of passions from scratch.
I've been watching this nerd for over an hour, and Charlie makes a major legal decision. I think, well, it's gonna be fun! Yeah, again, a bummer and anguish! The film has terrible problems with storytelling. The viewer is deceived by allegedly turning points, the director plays with pace, but so unsuccessfully that only bewilderment remains.
Charlie and Nicole's emotional dialogue is even more perplexing. Ladies and gentlemen, if a husband and wife have accumulated such contradictions, they should have appeared much earlier and seriously affected their lives! And if this is just a couple release, then why is this episode even necessary? Except that this is the last attempt of the director to say ' no, it’s serious, everything is dramatic, look how they stare!' Nope. I don't believe it! I don’t care about these characters.
And a word about the kid. I know it was the director’s fault, but the kid was annoying. Why is Charlie fighting for him? Well, against the background of the discord of his parents, he would begin to turn into a bully from 'It'! But no, my son is murky and uninteresting.
And the scene with the father lying on the floor and the question ' are you okay?' apparently should have added subtle humor to this ' dramatic' film.
No evaluation.
Marriage story is a literal translation from English marriage story (as the original film is called). I think the word 'marriage', which implies the union of a woman and a man, is important in the context of the tape. Ironically, a child who has become the epicenter of seemingly irreconcilable differences in the separation process must stand aside so that we can focus on a crumbling marriage in which he and she are the sole participants. The tragic story of the whole world, built for a long time, carefully, diligently, and now painfully splitting in two, is placed in a capacious word of six letters - divorce. ' Marriage Story' Exactly about this.
Nicole (delightful Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (delightful Adam Driver) loved each other, love and will love. You really did. And they have something for that: in the prologue, each of the spouses reads to the viewer a detailed list of the advantages of the other. If this is not enough, Nicole will additionally, for example, tie Charlie's shoes, trim him or order a favorite dish for him, which he did not know, and Charlie, as part of the same example, will help Nicole close the gate or make her laugh. Due to the fact that we see such manifestations of love, and the fact that the partner is studied almost to the smallest detail, it is so sad to watch the decline of the whole and his happiness only on the general poster of the work.
You can't keep quiet about the breakup. The question ' Why?' which I considered key for a while is actually secondary. As assumptions, you can put forward betrayal, lack of sexual life or self-realization, selfishness. Or maybe it’s the banal impossibility of two creative people with their ambitions to be under the same roof. In any case, Charlie and Nicole have reached a state of marriage where love is not enough. That's not the point. The main thing was to show on the screen two opposing units that can never again form a sum. And the director paints it boldly: while Nicole sits on the subway on the left, starring in the series, lives in the warm shades of Los Angeles, which has spacious houses and especially do not walk, and even on a personal poster looks to the right, Charlie stands on the subway on the right, puts a theater play, lives in the cold shades of New York, in which apartments prevail and mostly walk, and even looks to the left on a personal poster.
When viewing and in the future, the psychological analysis of Nicole and Charlie is very interesting, which seems to be the merit of their deep relief as characters. Such lively natures provided a binge-eyed look at the screen: you shy away from it, because you do not want to lose sight of anything. To confess, Charlie's tears at the end and Nicole's tears at the beginning make you cry with them, well, in the tense to the limit scene of the quarrel you will be so afraid & #39; to intervene & #39; that you will stop breathing for a while: Adam and Scarlett here just uff. . .
The director's work Noah Baumbak deserves the most flattering reviews. Theatrical format, in which this kind of cinema feels much more confident, can be achieved thanks to minimal involvement of the entourage, maximum emphasis on the characters and the gradual redemption of the frame, marking the end of one action and the beginning of the next. Memorable images were noted and almost walking on the heads of the couple’s lawyers, played by the aged Ray Liotta and still bitchy, but no less beautiful Lora Dern. The latter, by the way, will speak most vividly in a powerful and truthful monologue about the standards for the image of the ideal mother. There are still two aspects that in their own way decorated the unfolding performance: we are talking about successfully tearing down the curtains of seriousness humor, hidden both in dialogues and in specific characters (by the way, if someone is interested in the ending of the anecdote from the first lawyer Charlie, it can be found online), and wonderful melodies that catch surprisingly sensitive synchrony with each mood of the frame.
'Marriage Story' is one of the best films of the year, if not the best. Look at everyone, because it’s about everyone.
Turning on this obsessively advertised Netflix film as a background picture, I did not notice how I quit everything and stared at the screen with stupor. In our time, it is rarely possible to go so headlong into the narrative that you never get distracted by a mobile phone or anything else. But 'Marriage story' incredibly tangible, as if the events unfold right in front of the viewer. At the same time, watching this is much more interesting than watching any reality show, because this is not a show, but a painfully real sketch from modern life. It is a sketch, because this story without beginning and without end leaves room for fantasy for both realists and romantics.
Scarlett Johansson looks absolutely ordinary in an everyday shirt tucked in wide jeans and with a short, careless haircut without styling. She has almost no makeup and resembles one of the mothers in the next yard. Adam Driver also does not give the impression of a Hollywood star disguised as a theater director tired of working and personal worries in the process of divorce. They're like you and me. Yes, they may have money to rent a house in L.A., but their problems are as trivial as millions of other people in a more or less well-fed society. It used to be the lot of a woman to give birth to children, please her husband and run the house. And the reason for divorce, when it became possible at all, had to be something out of the ordinary, otherwise why break up a family and lose a breadwinner? But now the situation has changed and people can disperse for very obscure, but no less significant reasons. Divorce itself is a trauma, and the divorce that the characters of the film experience is perhaps a double trauma. When love has faded, but it has not passed, when resentment and understatement hurt, when you sincerely rejoice for the success of another, but are forced to fight dirty methods, because you have to share the indivisible - the beloved child. It would be much easier if he was a scumbag or if she just fell in love with another, but that’s the whole point – how to choose between yourself and your loved one? Either you lose yourself or someone you care about. Such a choice requires determination and despair, and I think it's safe to say that many of us, if we haven't had to make that choice, have dreamed of it. It is for this ambiguity, versatility, simplicity and complexity, and most importantly, soulful realism that I fell in love with this film.
9 out of 10
"Marriage Story" - one of the main nominees for various awards in this film season not in vain attracted so much noise - this is the rare case when a feature film can rightfully be called "vital".
At first glance, the tape seems to be an unpretentious romantic melodrama for the ladies of the “Balzac age”, but this is absolutely not the case – the film is suitable for a very wide range of viewers and with an eye on a different audience and was created. Women and men, lovers and divorced, with and without children, there is something to learn. By the way, it is quite possible that for someone the film will serve as a catalyst for the transition from one category to another, since there are both motivating and demotivating issues concerning family life.
One of the strengths of the film is the title acting duo - Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson have long proved to everyone that they are high-class actors, but to see them in the image of a married couple is an additional aesthetic pleasure. The most powerful actors will reveal closer to the finale, when in a scene where the main characters find out the relationship. It seemed that Driver and Johansson really quarreled - it was too natural to look this episode.
My only critical comment for Marriage Story will be the release date. The film should have appeared on Netflix a little earlier, since such a tape can completely deprive of the New Year’s mood, and with him many things are not so much. But maybe it’s for the best – starting to prepare for a new decade by rethinking your own views on family values is not a bad idea.
Nice start. Not a bad idea. Good actors. But the director, alas, VERY wanted to show the terrible horrors of divorce and he got ... . It's not worth watching.
General impression: A very moving story of two lost people, they seem to love each other, but not as much as before. However, a deep wound leaves a scar, because these two, who experienced the most tender feeling - love, suddenly became strangers.
I suggest that you immerse yourself in watching the picture with your head, the multigenre of the film does not burden, but only dilutes the film with its presentation. Here, not only the emphasis in the drama, but also comedy slips, as soon as you are overtaken by sad emotions, a discharge is necessarily formed on the screen. Comic situations make you pay attention to details and look at the characters. Narrative with such an important topic is fascinating and the plot is interesting, the tape looks in one breath. And creative personalities in the person of Scarlett and Adam stir up interest.
Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson give a dizzying game, their characters are exhausted and beaten. Everyone holds grievances, swallowing them, and tears flow in a stream, but there is a limit, a boiling point, and perhaps the most dramatic moment is filigreely played by these two chic actors - a quarrel.
But still, Driver broke my heart, portraying the universal pain, even in minor conversations, he shows how hard it is for him. But this does not mean that he eclipses Scarlett, she with her desperate eyes and tears so skillfully conveys the character of the heroine, you understand her as a woman, you want to see closer. Most importantly, I want to feel sorry for both. At the moment, both Adam and Scarlett are nominated for a Golden Globe – I really hope they get the award!
In the film, a magnificent musical composition, chic dialogues that touch the soul, and high-quality directing helps to reveal an important detail - love. And believe me, here it is different: with pain, with tears, love for the child, for himself, love tied. So multifaceted, that leaving aftertaste, dilutes everything with my tears, yours, I am sure too! I recommend it!
Noah Baumbach is a modern genius & #39; intellectual & #39; as critics call her, comedy, who constantly refers to his predecessors. Woody Allen was clearly not just a director for Noah. It seems to me that Baumbach went beyond Allen, having discovered almost a new genre in cinema - an absolutely tragic, deplorable and realistic comedy. While watching his films, you laugh, wiping tears from your cheeks. But it's not tears of laughter. These are tears from the realization of impending hopelessness.
Marriage Story is a masterpiece of modern cinema. This is not a movie, but watching the horrific everyday life of two former & #39 sharing their child. There is a moment when you sit with a very interesting person and listen to his huge stories. You don't care about anything, you just listen to them. And when they end, the next few years you remember them almost every day. So that's what Marriage Story is. Any short line will be difficult to forget, you will drag it into your everyday life. And this will last until Noah Baumbach releases his next film.
Acting work here deserves special attention. I didn’t like Driver or Johansson, I just didn’t care. But now I consider them almost the best modern actors. Their game is the transmission of everything that we often miss, which in life we do not pay attention to. After this picture, you will even look at people in the subway in a completely different way.
Directing and script here from Noah Baumbach. Like I said, he is an absolute genius. It seems that there is nothing special in history, nothing remarkable, but you can not come off. Each scene is written as a theatrical play. Love and interest in this story are felt every second. In directing, by the way, everything is extremely original. Baumbach so original leads this secondary aircraft that it does not fall even during a hard attack. In some places, it's like watching a documentary, so the lights and the camera are exposed. This makes everything that happens more emotional. What kind of movies can there be about war or famine when a couple has such problems? And I'm serious now.
Sometimes we don't understand ourselves. I think we should and should understand this. Without this understanding, we simply cannot live. That's how I interpret the plot. And isn't that the perfect idea for a Baumbach movie, after which you want to have fun and hang yourself? . .
Marriage Story is the best film of this year. Maybe even the best movie of the decade. But I will understand this for myself only after a while. . .
Love is one of the strongest feelings a person can feel. His power lies not only in relation to another person, but also to himself. We can try to understand it, but we can never understand it. Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” is a bright and unique story, unique in that it does not try to become a personal psychoanalyst for the viewer, it only demonstrates the life of a man and a woman as it is – with its pens, tragedies and limits and forces you to project it on yourself.
Despite the fact that the basis of the film is the divorce process, Baumbach leaves the characters life outside of it. They spend time with their child, trying to prepare him for what is happening, without injuring him. They try not to lose the desire to look around not only to find the eyes of the person with whom they have lived so long. They try to convince themselves that life doesn’t end and it will be better. "Marriage Story" is the embodiment of one of the most banal things in the world - if you love - let go, and the personification of the qualities that are in each of us. Driver's hero sees changes in his wife and perceives them with a claim, not with interest. It seems to him that as soon as they embarked on the path of divorce, she began to change for others in ways that she did not want to change for him. Each of us goes through this selfishness when we feel that a relationship is ending. This honesty to the viewer is frightening and shocking.
Such strong impressions are not only the merit of Baumbach as a screenwriter, but also the acting duo Driver and Johansson, where the first personification of all male nightmares, and the second demonstration of fear from their own actions. Scarlett played her best career role here, showing the swing where there are tears of grief and tears of happiness, but without indicating where the tears are. It leaves it to the viewer, to make his choice, to look at his life, to remember what was done right and what was not.
Yes, the whole movie is filled with pain, but the aftertaste of it is completely different. For two hours, we do not study the behavior of the characters, but analyze ourselves in the past. We come to think that we behaved like people, maybe not too collected, not too smart, but definitely alive. Our actions were not inadequate, they were situational. We rejected the obvious, we accepted the terrible, we loved ourselves and not the other person, we demanded, but we did it with the best of intentions.
"Marriage Story" is the true film of the year, as it manages to give a sense of relief after watching. We want to believe in love, believe in people, believe in feelings, even if they are impossible with that person. The film helps to look at a person nearby not through the prism of oneself, to isolate him from himself in relationships and turn him into a separate unit of society for a while. This view changes attitude, there is respect, there is awe and a simple desire for this person to be happy. With or without you.
I never feared death, for I met it face to face. I'm not afraid to starve to death or to fail as a human being. The only thing I fear is loneliness. Loneliness is emotional. I don’t know what it has to do with the way my parents loved me, the way they treated me, the betrayal of people I thought were friends or cheating on in a relationship. But after watching the film, I realized that emotional loneliness comes only because of you, because of your inability to penetrate the person to whom you sincerely treat. And this inability is a derivative of selfishness, where you demand and dictate who owes you what. And if you can change the paradigm and turn demands from someone into wishes for someone, you can make yourself and the person around you happier. That is, please your egoism, and please another person.
It’s like the movie is asking for that, and I want to answer that request with consent. Respond with a smile to make you happier.
A film that fully revealed the problems of marriage without tinsel and grace. A married couple is divorcing and trying to decide who the only child will be with - so often we hear it and see that we have already gone through something like this. Nothing new or unusual: people change, their paths diverge. And that's it.
The way it was shown in 'Marriage Story' - tearfully, insecurely, but so tenderly and natively - gives a very different idea of ' a man and a woman who simply could not get along together' The whole process is like two puppets who do not understand how to cope with a completely new and so suddenly surging feeling of hatred for the seemingly closest person on Earth. And as soon as you cross this line with the words ' I don't love you anymore', the puppeteer comes into play, for whom you can mistake the whole world around you: from your own mother to lawyers. Everyone knows what to do and how to live on, but the heart inside is torn apart.
About the game "Scarlett Johansson" and "Adam Driver" it makes no sense to say: without discussion, it is already becoming a benchmark for dramatic roles. The viewer seems to watch what is happening from the inside, sees all emotions at the time of their inception, until they have taken a verbal form. Moments of empathy and hate change so quickly that you don’t even know which side to be on. And that’s because it’s not a story about competition or feud. It's not even about divorce: the name was chosen for a reason. This is the life of two lost people who both complemented each other and repulsed, as if the laws of physics at one moment decided to work differently, and now we see how the different poles of the magnet suddenly ceased to attract, and why this happens - no one can explain.
After all, the main part of the story is love. Battered, lame, but still love. It was a great decision to start and end the film with monologues of the characters, in which they speak purely and sincerely about those everyday things for which they love their couple. Here lies the core of their relationship - mutual concern. That is why they can never become strangers to each other: love passes, but caring for the person who, through ups and downs, made you alive & #39, will remain until your last breath.
8 out of 10
Nicole and Charlie were more than ordinary spouses – comrades, colleagues, like-minded people, good parents and just madly in love. But time and circumstances begin to make their own adjustments when the theater, in which Charlie works as the main director, is gaining momentum, and Nicole, who gave up her career as a Hollywood actress for the sake of participating in her husband's plays, is slowly fading away. Realizing that she is becoming a nobody and she urgently needs to think about her own future life, Nicole begins to see in her once beloved spouse an egoist, too passionate about his work. She takes her son and leaves New York for Los Angeles, where she was born and raised, where she faces new career prospects, while Charlie is immersed in the production of a new play starting on Broadway. Thus begins the process of their separation, which they first wanted to organize quietly and peacefully. But divorce is often painful and painful – and once loving each other people turn into sworn enemies, finding within themselves hatred and resentment, which were not even suspected.
Leo Tolstoy in Anna Karenina voiced a phrase whose relevance will be eternal: all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way. And, although there are many films about divorce in world cinema (the canonical American film about the breakup Kramer vs. Kramer will come to mind, of course), each story told in them turns out to be unique and individual – like every person on Earth. The press has already boldly called “Marriage Story” the best and most mature film directed by Noah Baumbak, calling the film one of the main film events of the year. If we talk about personal feelings, the aforementioned masterpiece of Robert Benton still made a more powerful and subtle impression, but “Marriage Story” – the movie is definitely strong, touching and memorable.
Baumbak really very deftly conducts an absolutely simple household scheme and the movie instantly catches and attracts attention, despite the fact that it lasts more than two hours - of course, provided that the viewer is interested in both the characters and their problems. The director does not reinvent the wheel in the way of narrative: a little Woody Allen, a little Ingmar Bergman, a bit of humor and wit, a sadly painful note that sounds throughout the film, and the irresistible desire of the characters to speak out, which turns their dialogues / monologues into a bitter, tearful confession. Indeed, it is very difficult to see how two good, intelligent, well-known and truly loving people gradually lose mutual understanding and find themselves in circumstances where no bright feelings can save them. Although the fashionable feminist theme here also slips, Baumbuck plays it deftly and delicately, putting in the mouth of the lawyer Nora (the very bright role of Laura Dern) apt remarks about the demands put forward by society for a woman as a mother. In the situation of Nicole and Charlie, there is no clear understanding of who is “bad” and who is “good”, here the conditions are described when a person chooses the realization of personal aspirations as the main goal of his existence, the fear of living a life in vain wins many things, including a strong family union, and the inability to find a compromise in time and feel the very painful change in relations threatens irreversible consequences.
Of course, the main thing in this story is the characters. Contrasting as the cities to which they belong by blood, restrained, somewhat introverted and intelligent New York and ardent, sensual, passionate Los Angeles, Charlie and Nicole are just as much a part of something whole, one, but at the same time distant as two planets in temperament and worldviews. In clarifying their relationship, Baumbak recalls Bergman for good reason and resorts to camera minimalism - only ascetic, absolute simplicity of the frame, reaching to intimacy, only a bare nerve, when the argument is constantly broken down into screams without any whispers, trembling lips, full of tears eyes and devastation as a result. Although at times it seemed that Scarlett plays with some emotional pressure, this role is definitely the best that she portrayed on the screen since “Difficulties of Translation” and “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, there is not a trace of the blonde, the image of which was very fond of rinsing many directors, now and then shooting the actress in the roles of eternal mistresses. Playing her complete opposite Adam Driver is no less good in the image of Charlie, on whose side, apparently, is Baumbuck himself, who survived a divorce from actress Jennifer Jason Lee. His dramatic self-restraint enters into genuine chemistry with the expression of his on-screen partner, and at some point you really start worrying about their relationship more than yours. And, although Baumbach finds for Nicole and Charlie a reasonable and worthy for adults way out of the situation, not bringing anyone to a nervous breakdown, like the heroine of Irina Alferova from “Do not part with your loved ones” with her heartbreaking “I miss you, Mitya!”, the realization of how easily love and understanding can die, leaves after watching a very bitter aftertaste.
On December 6, 2019, Netflix released the second most important and expected picture of the year after Scorsese – “Marriage Story” directed by Noah Baumbach. Enthusiased in Venice, the tape reached the home viewer, for whom, first of all, it was shot.
The relationship in the family between a man and a woman very often became an example of the study of directors. Bergman in his next phase was the most creatively savvy, Cassavetes the most absorbent, Woody Allen habitually ironic, Paul Dano's recent directorial debut a little more bearish, but just as touching. Baumbach went through a divorce process. In the center of the story, a family of a theater director and his actress, played by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, who have a young child and who, in the process of continuing love for each other, divorce simply from the fatigue of family life. The main reason is working and social circumstances - it is more profitable for the hero of Driver to work in New York, as well as to live in his metropolis, the heroine Johansson dreams of staying in California, where she is again offered film roles and where all her relatives are located. Agreements on quiet and peaceful spending are violated when the couple cannot determine where it will be more comfortable for their son to live, and familiar lawyers come into play, who with all their inferior and unprincipled qualities try to destroy the mutual understanding and friendships of the divergent.
The fact that this film is one of the contenders for the big film awards in the season and received a lot of support from film critics is quite objective. It is also genuinely joyful, especially in the sense that the film industry can still reflect a person and his relationships, and not work on the chewed-up instantaneous surge of emotions from the rainbow unconscious miniature. It is hoped that society will be built on the attitude inherent in heroes, and not accept the masks of impersonal advocacy, categorically and fiercely fighting for the necessity of loneliness.
Baumbach is touching and ironic, only in its unique silent phase. The percentage of his irony in Marriage Story is minimal, paying homage to sentimentality and heartfeltness. His directing is perfectly combined with the expression of Adam Driver's face - simple, but at the same time meaningful, it seems to understand nothing and discouraged, but absorbing and processing everything that happens to him to the smallest detail. Baumbach is not characterized by outbursts of emotions - the only surge comes at the very end of the picture, and is associated only with the devastation of the characters who can not find an answer that suits both themselves and their partner. The rest of the time they spend alone, getting used to loneliness, but refusing to admit it. They can’t avoid discomfort because they feel responsible for the loneliness of their former partner.
Also uncomfortable is the viewer, who is forced to position himself relative to the on-screen characters and most of the film evaluate his own life, identifying himself with their actions. Due to gender differences, not at all visual, but imprisoned in the worldview, the location is divided into the usual F to F, M to M. However, only as well as the characters, the viewer is forced to make his way through the stage of “transition”. In other words, he will have to take the side of the opponent, and look at her or his situation. In many ways, this is the beauty of the new Baumbach. New York is as good as Los Angeles.
The viewer is distant only at a professional level - there are not so many directors and actresses, and the contradictions on changing the place of residence for Russian reality are not at all so equivalent. However, here everything can be explained by the clarity of such a couple, and the habit of the American film industry to create attractive characters of wealth above average, and especially the personal experience of Mr. Noah Baumbach, in his life through a divorce, and, in seemingly reminiscent circumstances.
So you can trust everything. More than that, I want to believe. Driver and Johannson are incredibly convincing in reflecting the usual human gut, which wobbles more than decides and acts. Perhaps their disagreements became only a temporary barrier, before which they were stuck in hesitation, and decided to bypass each on their part.
"Marriage Story" is incredibly reminiscent of the work of some Woody Allen ... only if the pious irony would be shattered by the cruelty of the real world. The piece, based in part on the director's real divorce, allows emotions to overcome intellectual restraint. At best, this film is capable of burning: it reveals not so much aspects of marriage as divorce - which is why the title of the film seems significant. And although the creators clearly limited their biased aspirations to pretentiousness, yet the picture, albeit with intellectual significance, is emotionally universal – the screen presents ordinary people whose problems are real and banal, and therefore no less significant to the viewer on the other side of the screen.
Like Kramer vs. Kramer, Marriage Story is an exploration of marriage by divorce. Nicole and Charlie are in the process of breaking up. The only time we encounter their “happy days” is in the opening editing process. Otherwise, it gives the impression that everything is lost and, more importantly, that the heroes are aware of what they no longer have. Most divorce movies focus on the slow tension of a breakup. In "Marriage Story," it's all over.
The main part of the film is devoted to the difficult relationship of Nicole and Charlie and how they try to survive the divorce. Nicole moves to Los Angeles to resume her career while her husband stays in New York for his job. Their son Henry left naturally with his mother, so Charlie has to fly across the country to spend time with the boy. Divorce becomes more painful when lawyers get involved. Nicole chooses the intelligent and manipulative Nora, and Charlie chooses the burned and unscrupulous Jay.
While watching Marriage Story, there are moments when the viewer may wonder if the characters' relationship can be saved. Characters count as well. For a while, Charlie is deluded that everything is temporary and Nicole will change her mind. The interests of Charlie and Nicole's son become secondary during the parents' war. The director has done a wonderful job of exposing the background of both characters in this drama: both characters are selfish and stupid, there is no whitewashing of the female side or male solidarity.
As sincere and organic as the emotions are, the script often mistook mundane arguments for drama. In general, the characters in “Marriage Story” are shown organically, and the narrative itself is even optimistic in some ways. The film is built in the atmosphere of “improvised space”, i.e. the characters live in their own special microcosm.
The greatest strength of Marriage Story is the acting. The strong representations of Johansson and Driver reflect the former idealism of their characters, as well as expressing betrayal, confusion, immaturity and pain. Scarlett and Adam recognize, well, Scarlett and Adam, but you can see that the actors spent weeks working on the characters.
Writer-director Noah Baumbuck brings the pain of the divorce process to the screen in a drama that is phenomenally written but more of a one-man experience. It’s hard to imagine that any real couple would want to watch this movie together: for a married couple or for a date, “Marriage Story” is very uncomfortable, for friends, this picture will ruin the evening. Perhaps, ironically, this film will suit “remaining friends” after a divorce or breakup – probably every frame for them will fall into a point: from rude emotions to friends, making it worse. The motion picture, it expressive, is an accessible and versatile piece; some viewers may find "Marriage Story" too crude, but movie fans should be happy - it's rare for viewers to see Kylo Ren and Black Widow transcending their pop cultural imagery.
7 out of 10
The film would be more logical to call – “The Story of Divorce”, or even more precisely – “The Story of the Divorce Process”, because, after a short portrait overture “she-he”, the narrative goes to the breakup of relations, and then only gets worse, giving the souls of divorcing at the mercy of lawyers. There is a literal reference to Bergman’s Marriage Scenes, but it is already clear what he was “inspired by.” Baumbuck. But if you resort to comparison, it is clearly not in favor of the latter.
If in the “Scenes” the spouses gutted the relationship, squeezed everything possible out of them, exposed all the contradictions, and, without assistance, arranged a kind of bold self-psychotherapy long into life, then here just two infantils did not cope with the problem of “my-your” at the early stage of marriage. But even on the other side of the comparisons, we are witnessing a wretched spectacle where two seemingly “close” people, already with a low degree of consciousness, only aggravate their passions.
Interestingly, the main reason for the discrepancies, the couple considers the problem of loss of “personality” in the marriage, especially Nicole (Johansson), which triggers this nondescript process. Starting in long confused speeches about “my”, about forgetting, searching and reincarnation of their self, they both very quickly and without unnecessary hesitation hand themselves over to the lawyers, exhaling from responsibility and safely getting rid of this so desirable self.
Family conversations move into the plane of legal language, where living claims degrade to dead claim forms, and the specific personality of life’s vicissitudes to the abstract face of the trial. I am alienated from myself, and we see a suffering lack of will, subject to the will of lawyers. A healthy family agreement, a condition without paper, at the negotiating table turns into a contract that requires printing. The legal will grows, and the mental movement of divorcees fades, they are emptied, turning into hollow dolls, toys in the hands of representatives.
Accordingly, the court drama drags the blanket of the marriage drama on itself, coldness and formality grows, which is played by the faceless figure of a social worker testing paternal and maternal behavior using an algorithm. A creepy arbiter in his detachment, who does not delve into the specific life of the family, but checks the work of software applications “mother / dad”. The couple is extremely detached from themselves, immersed in straightforward self-contradiction. They have no power not only over themselves, but also over the legal scene that plays them, they simply follow a certain fate of the process, from which they also try to evade in every possible way.
Controlling theatrical scenes as a director and actress, they do not want to control the scene of their married life as spouses, perhaps not only marriage, but life itself. Absolute self-exclusion in a fundamental inability to understand and accept the economics of a family union. After all, even the notorious “mine” is evaluated primitively, as an exclusive I, up to the removal of any union of atomicity, which is naturally transformed into private property, into liberal law with a claim to power over the child, property, capital.
This “mine,” it turns out, did not at all follow any call for the awakening of the personality (then everything would be fine with marriage), but continued to remain an undeveloped demand for privacy, satisfaction on private accounts. Mine is half a prize, half a child’s time, a spacious house (one of the arguments for breaking up and moving as a comic leitmotif), a calculation of creative investments, thoughts, ideas, which ones were yours, which ones were mine, etc. The division was so petty that the couple did not shy away from even dirty games, limply giving lawyers even their little unflattering secrets, tearing ordinary details out of innocent context and attaching to the case in the context of the accusation.
Now you can see that the introductory overture suffers from a common defect of division - love portraits are classified, the spouses arrange each other's identities into mine and yours. Sometimes it seemed that someone was about to show their will, but no, Charlie (Driver)’s gusts of sharpness quickly stopped and were rather theatrical in nature, there are even scenes where he caricatures fooling around, goes to reality and immediately puts it down. Nicole seems more active only because she triggers a breakup and puts herself more insistently in the tenacious hands of her virtuoso lawyer.
Divorce specialist Nora (Laura Dern) spectacularly illustrates the painful picture of self-loss in representativeness by recording the pressing social situation in America, in particular the problem of the disappearance of the Father. From this point of view, and perhaps only from this point of view, the story of Baumbak is of some interest, as a revision of previous divorce films in relation to new social conditions. But in terms of scene and character, minus good acting, the story is less appealing than Bergman’s directly quoted Scenes. If there is a desire to reflect more deeply on the contradictions of marriage, then Swedish drama contributes incomparably more to this.
The trait that makes Charlie and Nicole look like each other and, at the same time, dilutes in different corners of the marital ring is the inability to lose. These two insecure people, she is a once-shimmering, hereditary actress from Los Angeles, and he, who moved from Indiana to New York, but has already fruitfully taken root, a theater director, exchange a family battle on the fields of the monopoly for a divorce battle. In appearance, two intelligent people, Charlie is a caring father, he can not be put on a par with scoundrels, and Nicole can not be called a bitch, she knows better than Charlie what kind of dinner he needs, even if the situation does not dispose of friendliness, crave love and recognition from the world more than from each other. Scarlett Johansson is so real in the scene when she first visits Nora, her future lawyer, because she was not going to hire her, because everything could be decided in the psychologist’s office, but life she is such an angular thing, you do not know what angle she will turn to you and on whose shoulder you will find a support for tears and low self-esteem.
Noah Baumbuck sees no reason for the charges. In Marriage Story, he embodied his best script and, for me personally, proved that without female intervention in the text, he creates a very personal and at the same time so close to millions of people. Cinema has known and knows many directors capable of creating on the screen fascinating stories without interspersing sublimated motifs. Baumbak is not one of them. A breakthrough in Hollywood for him was his work as a co-author on Wes Anderson’s film “Water Life”. It seems that he felt that he could fly and a year later he created “Squid and Whale”, a very personal tape for Baumbak. Sundance Award, Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. Filmmakers talk about the new voice of American independent cinema. “She’s my favorite actress,” says Noah Baumbuck through Adam Driver’s character about his ex-wife Jennifer Jason Lee, embodied corporeally in “Marriage Story” through Scarlett Johansson. Frankly, she wasn’t the muse for him that Juliet Mazina was for Fellini or Mia Farrow was for Woody Allen. Not too confident in his own handwriting, the author was mowed down by an unsuccessful marriage with a famous actress, it can be seen with the naked eye, just look at his filmography. Hipster raids, which he makes together with Greta Gerwig, look like rough sketches, they have a lot of bohemian life and New York, painful reflections on this, and integrity and maturity, and most importantly – confidence in these pictures zero.
"Marriage Story" is created by exhalation. Baumbak does not run a hundred meters or a more difficult race of 1.5 thousand meters. In Marriage Story, Baumbak is a burnt-out marathon runner with debugged breathing and nerves of steel. For the first time in his short filmography, I saw the author’s love for his characters. There is no obvious evil in this film. There are people who represent the system, charismatic and spectacular in their roles Ray Liotta (how could you forget about me, Martin!) and Laura Dern, who can not be called beautiful, but heck, with each new role she only gets younger and gains unbridled sexuality. There are entangled in their ambitions ex-spouses, desperate to remain real parents for their only son. What I liked about Marriage Story was that Henry’s traumatized childhood didn’t fit into the story. And it doesn’t look like a void, Marriage Story doesn’t lose shape, everything in it remains directly proportional due to one fact. Charlie and Nicole remain deeply loving and respectful parents. It is pleasant to see that Woodyallen’s Freudian overtones, albeit told with a dose of sarcasm, have receded into the background and, I say this with hope, are already covered with a layer of dust.
Of course, “Marriage Story” does not create the impression that she was born in a hurry and the memories of her real prototype have not yet healed and are able to cause pain. If Baumbuck had made the film last, when the wounds of the breakup are still exposed, his own filmography would have been replenished with another emotional and slurred work. No, "Marriage Story" is a hard work of many years, during which there were many crossed out words thrown into the trash, all in order to give birth to conversational action. For two and a quarter of hours, Baumbak keeps the viewer in front of the screen not with the help of expensive special effects, but thanks to chic dialogues, talented actors who managed to create psychological chemistry between themselves, and seemingly such a boring household story about how two residents of the metropolis divorced becomes a voluminous spiritual picture in which you want to see your own reflection. I have never had a chance, but if this were to happen one day, I would very much like my ex-husband to make such an immense declaration of love for me. Immersed in his own world by the hero of Adam Driver and do not need to admit anything, it was done for him by Noah Baumbuck, who really proved that he knows how to create a family around himself and every hero is important to him. Without Merritt Weaver (Nicole's sister), Julie Hagerty (Nicole's mother, thank God there are subtitles), the aforementioned Ray and Laura, and the soulful Alan Alda and Wallace Shawn, who invented the obscene joke about Katharine Hepburn, "Marriage Story" would look chambered, faded and narrowly focused on the fact that she was sorry. In a scene in which Driver's character performs Stephen Sondheim's not-so-random song "Being Alive," Baumbuck pushes the boundaries - in this life there is nothing to regret but complete loneliness.