On MARRIAGE STORY

In my previous blog post, my last one of 2019, I wrote that I'd seen two of the three releases that contained characters singing Broadway show tunes by Stephen Sondheim. First was JOKER with "Send In The Clowns" from Sondheim's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. Next was KNIVES OUT with a fabulous Daniel Craig singing "Losing My Mind" from Sondheim's FOLLIES. Last night, I watched MARRIAGE STORY on Netflix. Written and directed by Noah Baumbach, it stars Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson as the young married couple that hits an emotional wall in the marriage. The wife seeks a divorce. Both are in the New York City theater world. She's an actress. He's a gifted new director. Initially, they want to keep the break friendly. They have a little boy. Then she books a major TV job in Los Angeles. The occupational relocation changes the tone of the divorce proceedings. In MARRIAGE STORY, the people that you want to just slap repeatedly, like they're Mrs. Mulwray in the last 20 minutes of CHINATOWN, are the lawyers. The West Coast lawyers now handling the divorce. If you've read high praise for the performances of Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, I second those emotions. Those two actors are excellent. Driver can tap into deep emotions and get raw like Sally Field. You feel the weight of the flood of tears in his heart ready to break loose at any moment.

MARRIAGE STORY also boasts rich supporting performances, most notably the three veteran actors playing the West Coast lawyers. There's Laura Dern, a high priced and very slim Southern California lawyer who always seems as if she's in the midst of delivering a TED talk. She listens to her client with a studied sympathy as she offers gourmet tea during their meeting. There's Ray Liotta as a pitbull lawyer and Alan Alda as an old school lawyer. The lawyers bring out the worst in Charlie and Nicole who, we sense, are not totally out of love with each other.

There are two other performances that I loved in MARRIAGE STORY. They're not getting a lot of attention but they should. Remember the comedy AIRPLANE! from 1980? Julie Hagerty plays the former actress mother to Johansson's character. She goes around the house singing pop spiritual tunes about the Lord's goodness. She's divorced. She's proud of still being friendly with her gay ex-husband. She likes wine. A lot. Hagerty nails that SoCal airiness I've seen in older L.A. women. I say that as someone who grew up in L.A. The separated actress (Johansson as Nicole) and her little boy are now living with her mother in West Hollywood. Charlie flies out to see Nicole and visit their son. Nicole has to serve him divorce papers. She wants to keep it all grass roots with no fuss and, at first, no laywers. She cannot physically hand him the papers. Someone else has to do it. Her mom doesn't want to because she's fond of Charlie (Driver). Nicole's sister, Cassie, winds up with the duty. Like their mom, she's having wine too.

To me, Merritt Weaver as nervous Cassie rehearsing how to hand Charlie divorce papers is a highlight scene in MARRIAGE STORY. She's a knockout in a scene that seemed right out of good screwball comedy from the Classic Hollywood era.  Merritt Weaver, Julie Hagerty and Scarlett Johansson later perform "You Could Drive a Person Crazy" from the 1970 Sondheim Broadway musical, COMPANY. After that, Adam Driver sings "Being Alive" from the same show. He may not have the big belter voice that Dean Jones did on the original Broadway cast album. Nonethless, Driver's rendition touches the heart. He's in the moment -- and very moving. Don't be surprised if hear you Adam Driver's name read as an Oscar nominee for Best Actor on January 13th.

As for Scarlett Johansson...her range is most impressive and, I feel, often overlooked. Here's a trailer.

Here's Johansson as another mother she played last year. She was the single mother. of a German boy seduced into the Hitler Youth program. He has no idea she's secretly helping a Jew. Her little boy was called JOJO RABBIT.

In the Hollywood satire from the Coen Brothers in 2016 called HAIL, CAESAR!, Johansson played the tough-talking swimming star of deluxe 1950s Hollywood musicals. She's pregnant, unmarried and needs to find a husband so there's not a scandal that could damage her career and the studio's reputation.

Scarlett Johansson is one talented actress. She's never been an Oscar nominee. Maybe one day she will be.  Maybe on January 13th.