Movie Review

Insightful Marriage Story tackles divorce in heartbreaking detail

You can say a lot of things about the films of Noah Baumbach, but calling them accessible is not one of them. The director of Kicking and Screaming, Margot at the Wedding, and Frances Ha has made a name for himself as an independent filmmaker by putting complicated, often impenetrable stories into the world. Even though his latest, Marriage Story, is as complicated as ever, it’s so painfully relatable that it may be his ticket to Oscar gold.

Ironically, the film is not about a marriage, but rather the dissolution of one. Nicole (Scarlett Johansson), an actor, and Charlie (Adam Driver), a theater director, are in the process of getting divorced. After starring in Charlie’s plays in New York for many years, Nicole has decided to break out on her own and try her hand at television in Los Angeles, a desire that was one of many cracks that led to their separation.

Though at first the two agree to an amicable split without lawyers, Nicole soon hires Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern), a vaunted divorce attorney. Charlie fights back with high-powered lawyers of his own, and the battle advances well past what either one of them could have imagined possible. They have a son, Henry (Azhy Robertson), but for the most part they keep the unpleasantries between the two of them instead of using Henry as a pawn.

As Baumbach, who wrote and directed the film, shrewdly observes throughout, there are no winners in the divorce process, and both sides can be considered good or bad depending on the day. In the case of Nicole and Charlie, there’s no clear-cut reason for them to divorce. Perhaps they got married too young, or Charlie didn’t listen enough to Nicole’s needs, or any number of other reasons.

The story is obviously personal for Baumbach, and he goes into excruciating and heartbreaking detail about the months-long progression of finalizing the divorce. While there’s never any hope that Nicole and Charlie would get back together, there are small acts of compassion throughout that demonstrate that neither one of them has lost their humanity in spite of the ugliness around, and sometimes between, them.

The film is obviously heavy on drama, but comedy makes its way in every now and again. Charlie’s choices for lawyers — a bombastic Ray Liotta and a timid Alan Alda — inspire laughs with their demeanor, although usually in a dark humor kind of way. Nicole and Charlie also find ways to laugh, sometimes together, but more often separately.

The film is a master class in acting on almost all fronts. While Johansson and Driver’s characters are at odds for most of the film, the two actors have great chemistry, and they easily demonstrate the love Nicole and Charlie once had, and still do have to some degree. Dern plays a slightly toned-down version of her character from Big Little Lies to equal effect. Supporting turns by Liotta, Alda, Merritt Wever, and Julie Hagerty make the story hum.

Baumbach has finally made a movie that can be appreciated by most moviegoers without sacrificing quality or toning down his acerbic nature. Now that’s he proven this ability, it’ll be extremely interesting to see what he does in his next film, which he’s co-writing with his longtime partner Greta Gerwig. That film? Barbie.

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Marriage Story debuts on Netflix on Friday, December 6.

Scarlett Johansson, Azhy Robertson, and Adam Driver in Marriage Story.

Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver in Marriage Story

Photo by Wilson Webb

Scarlett Johansson, Azhy Robertson, and Adam Driver in Marriage Story.

Movie Review

Jessica Chastain gets in a tangled love story in new drama Dreams

Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams

Photo courtesy of Teorema

Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams.

The opening scenes of the new drama Dreams are bracing, fictional sequences that call to mind real-life scenarios. In them, a young Mexican man named Fernando (Isaac Hernández) goes through a somewhat harrowing journey from the back of a semi truck in South Texas all the way to San Francisco. It’s a familiar immigrant story that seems to set the stage for a film with something interesting to say.

It turns out, however, that Fernando has not made the long and arduous trek for a job. Instead, it’s to be with Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), a rich woman who helps lead a foundation dedicated to multiple things, including funding dance academies. Fernando, a talented dancer, and Jennifer have been in an off-and-on affair for years, with Jennifer wanting to keep their relationship a secret.

Although both are drawn to each other in an inexplicable, lustful way, their bond is tenuous, with each of them dissatisfied for different reasons. Fernando clearly sacrifices much more of himself than Jennifer, who wants for nothing except maybe more affection from her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), and brother, Jake (Rupert Friend).

Writer/director Michel Franco seems to try to inject tension into Fernando and Jennifer’s relationship from the start, an attempt that is only halfway successful. It’s clear from the way they greet each other - not to mention a steamy sex scene shortly thereafter - that they have known each other for a good length of time. Franco is able to get across this familiarity with an economy of scenes, and the intensity of their bond holds for a while.

But as the film progresses and both of them grow disenchanted with their arrangement, Franco starts taking the story in some odd directions. The biggest issue is that it’s never clear at what point in time the story is taking place. Fernando ends up making multiple trips back and forth across the border, with Jennifer doing the same at one point, and Franco’s use of flashbacks muddies the waters, wrong-footing the audience when he should be trying to draw them further into Fernando and Jennifer’s complications.

Revelations in the final act make the story even more confusing, as both main characters start saying and doing harsh things that seem to come out of nowhere. That would be all well and good if Franco actually committed to their changes of heart, but he keeps things wishy-washy for most of the final 15 minutes, resulting in an ending that makes little sense for either character.

Despite the story issues, both Chastain and Hernández give compelling performances. Chastain has been a little under the radar since winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but she keeps this character interesting longer than it should have been. Hernández has limited credits and appears to have been cast for his dancing ability, but he goes toe-to-toe with Chastain on more than one occasion and acquits himself well.

Dreams had all of the ideas to explore a more in-depth story about the complicated immigration policies between Mexico and the U.S., or how wealthy people take advantage of those less fortunate. But Franco never finds the right footing, settling instead for a titillating and somewhat mystifying relationship story that feels half-baked.

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Dreams is now playing in select theaters.

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