Netflix: Marriage Story.

[Barry]

Netflix: Marriage Story
N

I don’t know if the director, Martin Scorsese, would recognize the irony here. He was very unhappy with movies that landed in the streaming world rather than in the movie theater and he blamed it on the big franchise movies. Well, the stars of Marriage Story are two of the biggest stars of the Marvel universe and the Star Wars universe.

This is a wonderful, thoughtful, modern and deliberately paced movie (2 hours 15 minutes)  that really does not show a marriage but a divorce between two people who once loved each other. Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver are just damn terrific here. Their characters seem real and their emotions seem sincere as they try to work out their differences and at the same time keep their only child as a priority.

The legal system and its lawyers are the only real villains here, but each lawyer is looking out for the best interest of their client.  Laura Dern, Alan Alda, and Ray Liotta, give wonderful performances as the lawyers. ( I noticed that Alan Alda’s arm was often shaking and I learned tonight that he had Parkinson’s disease.)

There is major star power here and these movies were once common in movie theaters. I’m glad we have not lost them. Although the movie had two great action-adventure stars here, there is no violence, no chase scenes and no one dies. I give this movie a grade of B+ Give me a few days and I might change it to an A.

The cinematography is fine and I noticed that in the beginning, when they are trying to set a somber tone, there’s a bit of sepia tone in the imagery. The Dolby 5.1 sound was also fine, but nothing spectacular.

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review Barry. Will check it out.

The only movie about divorce that was really good was "Kramer vs Kramer"..

How does this compare with that movie?

[Barry]

A very good question. This is a very different movie. In Kramer the two parties fight each other and Dustin Hoffman learns to be a father. This movie is more complicated than that. The couple here still have feelings for each other and go through a more realistic divorce. Adam driver, here, already knows how to be a father and Scarlett Johansson does not disagree with that. But it is how the couple realistically feels about each other and how they mustGo through a divorce. This movie is emotionally more absorbing than Kramer, in my opinion

[tripplej]

Thanks again Barry. Glad to hear it is better. Will check it out.