Marriage Story
2019
*****
Director: Noah Baumbach
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, Julie Hagerty, Merritt Wever, Azhy Robertson, Wallace Shawn, Martha Kelly, Mark O'Brien
In The Squid and the Whale and The Meyerowitz Stories, Noah Baumbach told partly autobiographical stories about broken families. Now he deals with the actual breakup, and it results in his most powerful film so far. Nicole is an actress who put her own Hollywood career on a backburner when she married Charlie, a renowned New York theatre director. Now the couple are breaking up and Nicole moves to Los Angeles with their 8-year-old son. The divorce proceeding begin amicably, but turn nasty, petty, and personal when lawyers get involved. Baumbach's brutally honest and heart-breaking drama has utterly believable characters and a finely nuanced script. Johansson and Driver both give amazing performances, and Laura Dern won an Academy Award for her delicious supporting role as Nicole's affable but conniving lawyer.
