By Anna Husted EBS FILM CRITIC
Writer and director Noah Baumbach
infamously wrote “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted,” a bizarre writing credit
in an otherwise notable career. The reason behind such a degrading blunder?
Rumors have it he wrote the script to finance his divorce. Perhaps it’s those
experiences, times spent in relationships and those in the throes of divorce,
that allow the man to have insights into the world of Western courtship.
Some critics, myself included, have
disparaged Baumbach for his continual tears shed and stories centered on those
who are very privileged and his perpetually anguished view of life. That said,
he writes what he knows and writes well—his characters are not without fault or
pain because no human is. This is most apparent in Adam Driver’s Charlie, the
co-protagonist of Baumbach’s latest work, “Marriage Story,” as he splits from
his wife Nicole (Scarlett Johansson).
While “Marriage Story” is no
“Kramer vs. Kramer,” it’s awfully close. Baumbach takes us through the
humility, anger and, ultimately, love that is twisted into this couple’s
divorce. The writer-director creates deep characters through simple actions,
like when Nicole helps Charlie install the booster seat in his rental car for
their son, or when Charlie adds plants to his apartment to make it seem more
family-friendly to sway the visit of a child custody worker—a thinly veiled,
but very human, sham.
Two scenes stand out as exemplary
in displaying this simple and bare humanity. One is the climax quarrel of
Nicole and Charlie, where everything is said that shouldn’t be. You may have
been there before. The other is a poignant moment where Charlie’s son asks him
to show the visiting child custody worker the trick he does with his pocket
knife, a trick he used to do for Nicole and their son where he fake stabs his
arm, but this time, in front of the social worker, he actually stabs himself.
It’s a pitiful moment that stands as a metaphor for the loss of his family.
Known for his New York movies,
Baumbach often uses the city as a background character. In “Marriage Story”
it’s Los Angeles that takes on this role—glitzy, sprawling and full of traffic
when Charlie, a New York native battling to hold custody in the Big Apple,
visits, and then sun-soaked and blissful when Nicole takes the screen.
Baumbach films will always be worth
watching for their complex characters and tone. And it isn’t all bad—the
director leaves us on a high note after nearly two hours of ache, with an
amicable divorced brace in a Los Angeles no longer bleak, but full of life and
sunshine and, curiously, family.
Anna Husted has a
master’s in film studies from New York University. In Big Sky she can be found
skiing or at the movies at Lone Peak Cinema. When not gazing at the silver
screen or watching her new favorite TV show, she’s reading, fishing or
roughhousing with her cat, Indiana Jones.
