Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story is a drama about the breakdown of a marriage and it is, at times, devastatingly painful. ‘Divorce,’ says a lawyer at one point, ‘is like a death without a body.’ It’s certainly not the most fun you’ll ever have at the cinema — although it is witty and there are some brilliantly comic lines — but you will see something riveting, detailed, authentic and excellent. Plus it also marks the return of Scarlett Johansson as an interesting actress — remember Lost in Translation? — rather than the one who hangs out with Iron Man and Thor and just does sexy kicks. I’d even forgotten she could be as interesting as this, frankly.
Johansson plays Nicole while Adam Driver plays Charlie. They’re a married couple with an eight-year-old son, Henry (Azhy Robertson), who live in New York. Charlie is an up-and-coming theatre director while she’s the actress who stars in his highbrow plays but is originally from LA and planned to have a Hollywood career.
The film opens with a montage of them saying what they love about each other. Nicole endlessly brews cups of tea she never drinks, adores playing with Henry, speaks to strangers for too long. Charlie eats like someone is about to steal his food, relishes being a dad, dresses well even if he isn’t vain. It’s charming and sweet and romcom-ish but it then transpires that we are in a mediator’s office and these are the lists of what they had loved about each other. They are meant to read these lists aloud to each other, so the proceedings can begin positively, but she refuses. She is angry, hurt, sad. And so is he. However, they do agree to figure it all out between themselves rather than get lawyered up because they are not the kind of people who want to tear each other apart.
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