Marriage Story 2019

A tale of two cities and one very messy divorce between two nice people.The nice people, the couple are played vividly by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson who not only share a disintegrating marriage but the same kind of puffy lips. There have many movies that display failing marriages in all their miserable glory and this one will I think be fondly remembered down the road. Set in two of the most difficult cities in the world we literally walk in on the end of this creative marriage involving a theatre director and his actress wife as they set about ending their marriage that has been cracking for some time. There is a young son caught in the cracks which is also usual with this kind of melodrama. There are always children. Scarlett takes off for an acting job in her home town of L.A. where she settles back in her childhood home with a zany mom played by the zany actress Julie Hagerty and Adam continues on his avant-garde minimal and mainly off broadway theatre career back in the big apple. They fight. Adam travels back and forth and forth and back hoping to spend time with his son who is pretty much detached from him and on the way wins a McArthur grant, how nice and contrived. Lawyers. Scarlett hooks up with Laura Dern a high pitched high power and high priced one who is all sharp angles and edges, she's like a paper cut that will never heal. Meanwhile Adam finds a couple of his own one also high priced and sharp played by Ray Liotta and a more gentle one acted by Alan Alda, both are compelling and riveting. A lot of it was embarrassing for me to watch, simply because it is so raw and angry but watch I did. Well written and acted with a surprising musical interlude near the end of the film where the leads sing songs from the Stephen Sondheim musical "Company" and with a fairly predictable somewhat upbeat ending where everyone walks away with all parts intact. Look to this one to do well with the Oscars.