Summary Review, Minimal Spoilers:
Marriage Story is a good movie with an unremarkable title. It’s definitely a story about a marriage, but marriages can end up being so many things, some wonderful, some terrible. This is somewhere in between.
Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole (Scarlett Johannson) have what a great life in New York City. He’s a director of Off-Broadway plays, and she is his muse, and star. They have a son, Henry (Azhy Robertson), and they’re all really engaged with each other. However, the situation changes, as a job opportunity starts a rift in their idyllic life.
It’s the sort of story you’ve seen before, but it’s very engaging and draws you in as it continues. This film has an excellent cast, populated with well known stars, and each of them have good moments on screen.
As a movie, I was pleased with what the movie did. I’m not a huge fan of the story, but I can forgive it because it feels like it’s the “right” outcome. I’m not a huge fan of interpersonal conflicts. There were some slow moments, with a lot of close-ups, and I do admit that I spent some time trying to count the number of moles in both Adam’s and Scarlett’s faces. I sat really close to the screen, OK? I’ll just say that I was not bored, but I did feel some scenes plodded along.
I’ll go ahead and recommend this. It’s not the best sort of story like this that I’ve seen, but it felt like a sincere effort to portray these people’s lives. They really felt like people, not just characters on a screen, and that goes a long way with me. The runtime is 2 hours, 16 minutes, so plan accordingly. It’s currently playing in theaters, but will go to Netflix soon enough, since they backed the film.
Extended Review, with Minor Spoilers:
If you hadn’t guessed, this story dances around with the dissolution of a marriage. It’s about someone repressing their dreams for the sake of keeping the relationship happy and free of conflict. Sometimes, it just takes a separation for someone to realize they’re missing out, and that’s the push they needed to make things happen.
The supporting cast’s parts were well written. So often, they are just sounding boards for the lead cast members to talk to, and they usually come off as wooden and/or two-dimensional. Not here. They are properly fleshed out, and have their own drives, desires, and agendas. The ones that stand out the most are Julie Hagerty as Nicole’s mom, followed by Laura Dern and Alan Alda as lawyers. Their characters really help give Nicole and Charlie some perspective, because it appears that neither have that close friend/confidant, because they were that, for each other. They were both navigating new territory, and and you could see they were both awkwardly accepting that. It was not a simple process, by any stretch of imagination.