‘Marriage Story’: Extraordinary film about marital breakdown

Written and directed by Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver is about a once- happy marriage that has gone to pieces because of ‘irreconcilable differences.’ Divorce is on the cards and the protagonists fight a battle for, among other things, the custody of their son.

An incisive look at a relationship’s tragic end, the story centring on Charlie Barber (Driver), a theatre director, and his wife Nicole Barber (Johansson), an actress, is set in New York and Los Angeles. Charlie, who is taking his play to Broadway, has experienced success in his profession that values and honours talent without paying fancy salaries that actors and directors working in films earn.

The family lives in New York, although Nicole wants to spend quality time in Los Angeles. She wants to explore professional opportunities and express her individuality in the best way possible. For a long time, she has suppressed her inner desire and played the good wife and mother in New York. She decides to leave her husband’s theatre company, where she has been working despite marital troubles, and move to LA with her son when she gets an opportunity to play the starring role in a television pilot.

Marriage Story might have been inspired by Robert Benton’s Kramer vs. Kramer, possibly the best legal drama on divorce and child’s custody starring the brilliant Dustin Hoffman and the nearly infallible Meryl Streep. Apart from the obvious similarities with the theme, however, the two films are as different as chalk and cheese.

The film under review has moments of high drama because of three lawyers, who play pivotal roles in the story. Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern), who represents Nicole, is a combative lawyer who has experienced the tribulations of divorce in her life. Jay Mariotta (Ray Liotta), who is hired by Charlie, costs a fortune and believes in playing dirty to win legal battles. Bert Spitz (Alan Alda), also Charlie’s lawyer for a while, is a kind soul who believes in a conciliatory approach.

Charlie and Nicole’s private conversations with their lawyers help in explaining their differences, problems and anxieties. In the court, Charlie is accused of infidelity. Nora is branded as an alcoholic because of her moderate alcohol consumption. The son Henry (Azhy Robertson) is a major cause of legal aggression, a tool used by both Nora and Jay to win the case for their respective clients.

Marriage Story is about a couple, who are in the middle of a war of words but haven’t been able to let go of their feelings for each other completely. It also shows Nora’s family consisting of her mother and sister, whom Charlie continues to like even as his marriage heads towards breakdown. It is about the role lawyers play when they separate married couples seeking divorce. It is also about the child, whose custody becomes a primary concern for his parents who love and want him equally.

The film is the outcome of brilliant writing that portrays a broken relationship with all its nuances. Driver and Johansson are superb as the couple, and so is Dern as Nora. Alda leaves a mark as the kind-hearted lawyer, while Liotta is perfect as his brash counterpart.

A must-watch for those in search of meaningful cinema, Marriage Story is rich in emotional subtleties. The film will live on in the viewer’s mind long after the last sequence comes to an end.