Movie Monday: A Marriage Story

Fun Facts about the movie before I review this. It is from 2019- directed by Noah Baumbach and it stars Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson as Charlie and Nicole- a couple going through a tough divorce. Baumbach took inspiration from his own divorce from actress Jennifer Jason Leigh- who did like the movie. The movie won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress- Laura Dern.

So I just watched this movie... I've seen a lot of movies... I think I'm going to reserve Movie Monday for movies that aren't the newest that maybe I've seen on Streaming or something and then if I see another movie in theaters or if I buy or rent it on streaming- I'll share it as soon as I can after seeing it. Idk why I just feel like I've missed a lot of reviews lately- like Cruella and In The Heights... I might just combine those in a review and post that some other time. Either way... here's A Marriage Story- which I just watched and can't stop thinking about it.

Aspen (my boyfriend) had wanted to see this movie for a while and I was kind of hesitant on it. I like Adam Driver and I heard this was a great movie... but I had heard it was sad and it seemed like it would be hard to watch... especially with your partner. We didn't really think of it as a total bummer of a movie though. We actually found humor in it and... we just really enjoyed watching it.

So... just so you guys understand maybe why we had some fun watching this... we did compare it to some other movies that we had seen. The movie Her directed by Spike Jonze also costars Scarlett Johansson (although just as a voice actress for an OS named Samantha.) In that movie a man falls in love with an Operating System. We also saw another short by Spike Jonze called I'm Here where 2 Robots fall in love- and each time something breaks on the female robot- the male robot gives her a piece from himself. An Arm, leg... and eventually he gives her everything (spoilers... but this is a short film you can watch on youtube and... you probably shouldn't.) After we watched I'm Here- we learned a bit more about Spike Jonze and apparently that short was based off of his relationship with his ex wife... director Sofia Coppola. And Lost in Translation by Sofia Coppola was also about their marriage and it just seems like they just keep making movies about each other... and Aspen and I are slightly obsessed with this fact... and we kind of compared this movie a lot to the movie Her... which we didn't like.

ANYWAY- I know nothing about Spike Jonze or Sofia Coppola really... I just know their work and what I've read about their works being about each other. I also know they have literally nothing to do with each other... but I feel like knowing what movies we compare things to is important and even though we liked this movie and we didn't like Her- we had a hard time not comparing the two. They're both kind of about how important communication is in a relationship. In both movies the leading male even believes they're being heard by their partner- but really they aren't... I guess that's a bit of a stretch- but I just thought this was a nice way of showing an actual human relationship.

There are so many great little details in this movie that we really liked. The characters were both really great, even though they didn't work for each other and they were going through hell together... you could tell they still did care about each other. When they ordered lunch from the restaurant and he just looked confused and handed her the menu and he ordered for her... my heart BROKE at that moment- but it also felt really full and... just that gesture while they're fighting each other for everything they have... it was beautiful and probably my favorite part of the entire movie.

Another detail that we kind of liked was how isolated things were for Adam Driver's character- Charlie- had no family and everything he knew was in New York. Scarlett Johansson's character Nicole was in Los Angeles with her mom and her sister. The son even seemed happier with her. She had this new show that she had more power in than any production she had done with Charlie... while things were on the up and up with her it felt like Charlie was losing everything he had... it was a lot.

So I had heard that Nicole was kind of playing Charlie this whole movie... and the fact that she was an actress just showed that she was kind of "acting" this role and manipulating Charlie in that way... I could not really see that in the movie at all. I kind of felt for Nicole early on in the movie because I think she struggled more during the marriage and Charlie is struggling more during the divorce. Charlie has no one to really help him along with the divorce- so he's just finding things out for himself and even finding a lawyer is a struggle for him. Whereas with her- someone just gives her the name of a great lawyer... and everything kind of falls into place when she's away from him in LA.

I have a couple of critiques in the movie. I like Laura Dern a lot... I did not like her character that much. I think you're not supposed to like her character... but Idk I just didn't really like her. I also thought the kid looked WAYYYY older than how he's shown in the movie. He looked about 10 or 11 to me and they had a booster seat for him... I don't know that much about seatbelt law nowadays... but I do think I was smaller than he was when I was not in a car seat... I'm not sure if they had booster seats when I was little.

Anyway I loved the movie. It might be stressful to watch- it might not be the #1 date night movie of all time or anything... but I had fun watching it? It probably isn't the most fun movie... but I had fun watching it and I'd totally recommend watching it. Even if you've been kind of dreading it or putting it off or something... give it a chance and just take a break from watching it if it's bumming you out or making you anxious. It's worth a watch!

Bye!

-Shannon