Marriage Story

Quite a mind blowing psychological family movie. There hasn’t been such for a long time with actors that you want to see in some thrilling pose. For example, Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are great partners. There is a great chemistry between them as well as between Ray Liotta and Laura Dern, their lawyers. It was quite hilarious how the problems of their clients piled up all at once. Personally it was Alan Alda who made me happy with his nice role, but it was a pity that his role was inconsequential. He didn’t deserve that. Still I have to say that some scenes from this movie, including the fight between Adam and Scarlett where some things should have been left unsaid, are among the top performances and it is worth seeing and it is really worth it to live the story with the characters. Dramatically among the best of the contemporary cinema and the director Noah Baumbach’s best movie so far. (12/25/2019)

I've despised and hated this film for a long time and with that I apologise and now award it a rightful five star rating. it's a powerful experience and one of the highlights within the genre. The film could also work as a stage play, it's built entirely on excellent performances. Johansson and Driver both give career-best performances, but it's also nice to see Laura Dern in a very strong role as a sharp and tough lawyer. The film has a longer running time, but it immediately draws you in with intelligent dialogue and I didn't blink for the entire film. Probably the most detailed film of one of the most difficult chapters in life that you just don't want to experience, especially if you live in the USA. Once the film switched to the battle of the lawyers and the trial, I was on a cinematic high in pure cinematic perfection. There are scenes that had such a big and powerful impact on me that I'm anxious to watch them again. I forgot to breathe during the scene where their argument culminates in powerful anger. A really perfect, suffocating and unpleasant film. 10/10. (07/18/2022)

A brilliantly written and just as well directed study on the inevitable consequences of the relationship of two rational and professionally ambitious people, fully credible in the dialogues and the performances, which couldn’t be any better. We are in the middle of it with the characters, we understand each of their decisions and rows, and Baumbach holds the sympathies on both sides (though as a guy, I related more to Driver), while at the same time managing to alternate the styles, the rhythm and the moods of the narration in an impressive manner, using long shots and markedly compositional editing to change the focus of attention and let the perfect actors stand out. It went by so quickly. I hope Scarlett gets the Oscar (Driver can’t beat Phoenix this year) and I'm already looking forward to another Baumbach – in The Meyerowitz Stories I was unable to relate to the characters despite their good portrayal, but in Marriage Story, I emotionally experienced every aspect. I’d love to see next time an Actor Story, about the life of Jack Nicholson. )) 90% (01/01/2020)

With Marriage Story, it’s like when you forget that you’re watching actors in a film and you feel as though you are intensely living the situation that the protagonists are going through. This is a fragile, dialogue-driven relationship film that employs excellent camerawork and editing in telling the story. Scarlett’s first confession to her lawyer is perhaps the film’s most brilliant scene. Her acting is comparable to Naomi Watts’s breathtaking performance in the rehearsal scene from Mulholland Drive. There is also, for example, the build-up of tension through editing, with gradual approaches to tense faces in the quarrel, and the climax in which the worst is said and then immediately regretted. It wouldn’t work so well on the stage without those close-ups of the actors’ faces. The dialogue is so authentic and the natures of the characters so precisely formed that playing them must have been creative ecstasy. And it’s not just Driver and Scarlett who turn in wonderful performances here. Laura Dern makes a full-force comeback in a small space and Ray Liotta masterfully makes up for his absence in The Irishman in an even smaller space. Marriage Story is like the best of Woody Allen, with a touch of La La Land’s heart. In my opinion, an Oscar for best screenplay is inevitable. (12/24/2019)

Precisely balanced with a spicy script and many brilliant scenes. Baumbach at his best. He's not afraid to work with emotions and will even invite a bunch of old codgers to help him out. Laura Dern, Alan Alda and especially Ray Liotta portray exactly what is expected of them. And when it sometimes goes to the absurd, the writer and director in one always break it in another direction and the ride continues. I wouldn’t hesitate to call Marriage Story the relationship drama of the year. It does not moralise, nor does it take sides, it does an excellent job of showing the typically masculine ills of self-centeredness and not listening to the other side, as well as the feminine ills of not thinking rationally and sacrificing family for one's own sense of achievement, work fulfillment and satisfaction. Both sides are easy to understand, the fuck-up is right in the middle. And they portray that fact flawlessly. (12/28/2019)