'Marriage Story' Review—Depressingly Realistic

This movie hits Netflix in less than two weeks, but I saw that it was playing in the Paris Theater here in New York City, an old single-screen theater that closed but reopened just for this film.

And this was one of those, "I can't miss this," opportunities, so I got a ticket, sat down, and watched this movie. And just...WOW.

Here we go!

Marriage Story is a drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach. The film stars Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver as a couple going through a divorce as we see the custody battle and emotional rifts between them.

I mean...WOW. At this point, "one of the best films of the year," is a term thrown around by critics, including myself, very freely but this film is currently in my top 10 of the year.

One of the best achievements a writer can reach is making their film so realistic and so captivating that you forget that you're watching a fictional, scripted series of events. And I was lost in this film countless times throughout.

Baumbach's screenplay is truly something special with this film. He doesn't have a nonlinear structure or any special gloss-ups to make the film more interesting than it already is.

What we have is a divorce. We learn so much about both of these characters, Nicole and Charlie, how they interact with each other, how they interact with their son, and their personal reasons for getting a divorce; and throughout the film, we're left struggling to decide which one we're supposed to support, if any of them.

As the film progresses, their relationship falls apart more and more, and it feels grounded in reality, as nothing that either of them do feel out of the ordinary for what any sane, rational person would do and say. These characters are human; their logic can be flawed, and they make mistakes.

This is what made the story so well-written and the characters so compelling. We understand these two, and we relate to them. We understand their actions and their desires feel very realistic. They don't feel like characters; they feel like people.

And the dialogue in this film is what makes the film feel real; the conversations don't sound scripted at all. In fact, they sound like a real couple arguing with each other and disagreeing.

Something that happened during one of the arguments in the film is the two begin by simply talking but as the conversation goes on, they get angrier and angrier with each other until they are screaming at each other and trying to find something they can say that can hurt the other more.

Not only were scenes such as this very realistically written, but they were also brilliantly performed by Driver and Johansson, who give phenomenal performances in this film. They were so great that I'm gonna praise each of them individually, because they deserve it.

First, Adam Driver. He's a very talented actor who I can't wait to see as Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker later this year, and he delivers one of the best performances I've seen all year. He is absolutely mesmerizing.

Charlie remains very calm and levelheaded throughout a majority of the film, but in a scene where he's arguing with Nicole, he shouts at her and the amount of emotions displayed in this scene is one of the most realistic and heartbreaking pieces of acting I have seen in a film.

Recently, I attended a tournament where I had to deliver a monologue for dramatic interpretation. And given how hard it was for me to memorize a four-minute piece and deliver it realistically, I know that acting can be very difficult.

Johansson makes it look easy in this film. Her character has long monologues and a lot of complex emotions, and in a year where she has appeared in Avengers: Endgame and Jojo Rabbit, this is yet another fantastic performance for Johansson to add to her career.

Laura Dern is also very good in this film. Her dialogue is extremely well-written and well-performed, and her character was wonderful to watch.

In a similar vein to the Before trilogy from Richard Linklater, Bumbach directs this conversation-driven film with several long takes, and it can be hard to notice the long take because of how interesting the characters' dialogue is.

The film is edited well, the pacing is never rushed or slow, and the story is so interesting because of the characters and the conflicts we watch. Randy Newman does a great job composing this film, and I loved how the dialogue would have interruptions and stutters the way a real conversation does.

My only nitpick with the film is that the couple's son reacts to curse words in ways that I found unrealistic. A running gag is that every time a parent cursed, he would say the curse word back, and I don't think that's how most children operate.

I mean...that's basically it. This is such an amazing film; the dialogue and the performances are out of this world, and it was an incredibly realistic, sad story with an ending that I really liked.

Nothing about the events in the film felt exaggerated or fictionalized; it felt like I was watching a couple's relationship fall apart in real time, and it was captivating from start to finish.

I'm gonna give 'Marriage Story' a 9/10 (A).

When this film hits Netflix, give it a whirl. It's such a wonderful film.

Thank you so much for reading, and I'll have reviews for Frozen II and The Irishman in the coming days.