The Daily Star
It’s the subject of the film, the often-overlooked details of a divorce, and the sheer brilliance with which the protagonists executed their characters have made Marriage Story one of the best films of 2019. Directed by Noah Baumbach, the film shows how the dissolution of a marriage can lead two people, who were married for a decade, stop acting civilly with each other. The film also shows how expensive a divorce attorney can be, expensive to the extent that Nicole’s mom takes out a loan against her house to pay her daughter’s lawyer. Unbeknownst to me, a divorce lawyer in the U.S. can charge as high as $950/hour! In a family court, the lawyers say and exaggerate things about their opponents, making every divorce an ugly battle, many times against the wish of the couple getting the divorce.
We see divorces taking place around us, perhaps more than ever before, but rarely we come to know about the emotional distress the husband, wife and their children experience in the process. It’s not an easy journey and it’s not an easy choice — the film absorbs you and you begin to associate with the hurt of Nicole when she says that she gave up her budding Hollywood career, moved to New York City to play roles in the and stage shows directed by the man she fell in love with. In the institution called marriage, she forgot that she was an individual, too, with her own likes and dislikes. In her roles as a wife and a mother, she forgot that she could also dream to become “somebody.”
Adam Driver delivered a commendable performance. Charlie’s pain, his helplessness and the effort he undertakes to get custody of their son - starting from taking long flights from New York City to Los Angeles every week to renting a home in LA so he could spend time with his 8-year-old son, will make you feel for the character. You are bound to empathise with Charlie when he crashes to the kitchen floor from exhaustion.
Nicole and Charlie reach an agreement and finalise the divorce, but at the end of the film, we see that even though living new, successful and separate lives for a year, Nicole and Charlie still care for and respect each other. In the closing scene where Charlie carries their sleeping son, Henry, to spend the night with him after trick-or-treating with Nicole’s family and boyfriend on Halloween, Nicole notices his untied shoelace and runs to him to tie it. A simple but a powerful gesture of care and thoughtfulness for the person you were once in love with.
A marriage may not work, but a marriage is more than a piece of paper signed by two parties — it’s a collection of moments and memories, both good and bad. Marriage Story tells us that two people who were in love and married for a decade cannot suddenly stop caring for each other completely. A couple may not be in love anymore, but a divorce should not mean that two people must spend their lives, nurturing bitterness for each other, especially when there is a child from that marriage.
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