Untraditional in the way the story began, with the end of a marriage, viewers get a comedic, but also very sad glimpse into the messy collapse of a relationship. The couple, who both have roots and professions in the art and entertainment industries, thought they shared the same dreams, but their shared reality proves otherwise. Frequently getting into heated arguments and even tantrums, we see that the thin line between love and hate has crossed. In one of the most poignant scenes of the movie, when they have their most intense conflict, there is just pure venom-like words coming out of their mouths; however, while saying these cruel things, they manage to slip in terms of endearment like “honey” and show the sweetness of love, which momentarily offers hope that everything will be ok, but quickly dissipates. We saw that they both harbored intense feelings of anger and regret that has damaged them immensely, that it just seems the right thing to do to split ways. In all, the film was very complex in the feelings but it was well executed.

This movie was very interesting I guess. I didn’t like the acting because Bothe actors are very mediocre. And I wondered why this movie was getting more buzz than The Fence a movie which I believe did way better at a struggling couple. Which then got me to thinking how black films and black art gets under appreciated by the public and because the public (move critics, award board, and etc) are still white. Because of this most people miss out on a lot of greatness. I.e the marriage story given to the best actors instead of the best white actors would have hit. Maybe this movie isn’t the best example of what I’m trying to say but I still send by it. The marriage story was some mediocre white acting that was unnecessarily praised for being great. Hot take I know.

I really enjoyed Marriage Story. I thought it was a pretty simple film. Particularly, I liked how it began and ended, will the beautiful letters the husband and wife wrote. The voice-over monologues detailed what each loves about the other. This made me think about the people in my life and the relationships I have. Though they argue a lot , the couple recognized each others good qualities; Charlie cites Nicole’s emotional understanding, familial commitment, wide range of skills, personal intensity, total dedication to their son, Henry. It was hard to watch their relationship slowly fall apart, but in the end its clear that it was for the best. Nicole got to blossom as a person, and live her life out the way she wanted to.

Marriage Story is really good, and a gut-wrenching movie to watch, from beginning to end. A lot of times, the conflicts escalate in ways that feel like they were completely avoidable – and I’m sure this is deliberate. As both Charlie and Nicole try to navigate through divorce, a lot of hurt is exchanged between these two characters who, aside from the divorce conflict, still really like each other (which shows due to the letters they wrote about what they loved in each other). And it’s painful to watch this happening, slowly and steadily, while they desperately try (often unsuccessfully) to get some semblance of control over this whole situation. And their actions and characters feel real because they’re just two people acting based on their emotions – with both the good and the bad that this brings – in a conflict about these exact same emotions.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a really good movie, and I completely recommend it. Just… know it’s a movie that hurts to watch! =)

I attended the Friday Film of “Marriage Story.” This film was about a couple that seemed as though they were perfect with a child and successful careers. However, after the husband cheats on his wife, the wife realizes that she isn’t happy in their marriage and is constantly compromising her own happiness in order to please her husband. In other words, she never gets what she wants. After a long period of awkward separation and frustrating communication between the two, they go through an expensive divorce. One of the main things that made me fear marriage was the fact that their relationship seemed picture-perfect to the point where I envied them. Everything about their separation looked like complete agony. From the expenses of their divorce to figuring out how to spend equal but separate time with their child. It made me contemplate not getting married at all.

Marraige story is one of those movies that has a lot of different interpretations that can often impact whether people enjoy the movie or not. Some of the people I’ve talked to about the movie often feel disappointed or tell me that the movie was incredibly sad so they didn’t enjoy it as much or how it reminded some viewers of their own parents’s divorce. While the movie is obviously incredibly sad being that of divorce and failed love, it is an incredibly symbolic movie. It talks about the struggle of divorce and the real tragedy that it is. Over the course of the movie, we the viewer have the unique perspective of being able to see both characters’ viewpoints. Both characters feel trapped their marraige in one form or another. For Nicole it is because she is distanced from her family and L.A. and for Charlie its because he feels that his wife doesn’t really love him. They ultimately end up getting lawyers, spending immense amounts of money, and batter each others’ reputations. The theme I consistently felt watching this movie was one of tragedy. Both characters seemingly didn’t want to put each other through hell, but did so anyway with their lawyers. While Nicole ultimately has the larger victory in the end, the scene where Henry, their son, finds Nicole’s list of things she likes about Charlie. Here its obvious just how much was lost through their divorce.

Despite my lack of personal experience with marriage, as a nineteen-year-old college student, I could tell that Marriage Story (2019) presented a more realistic portrayal of relationship dynamics compared to many other highly-fictionalised Hollywood film romances.  Watching as protagonists Charlie and Nicole navigate the legal system with their attorneys opened my eyes to the painfully-high cost of divorce, an aspect that I had never considered before.  I thought that Laura Dern portrayed Nora, Nicole’s lawyer, very well.  I found her character impressive and irritating at the same time because she manages to successfully disguise braggadocio with a veil of sympathy and empathy: she brags about her own extensive career accomplishments but pretends to dismiss it nonchalantly by telling Nicole, “let’s make this about you” in a sickly-sweet voice at their first meeting.  As the tension between Nicole and Charlie escalated throughout the film, I found myself torn between their sides in the conflict and frustrated at both of them.  While I feel bad for Charlie that Henry, the couple’s son, preferred to spend time with Nicole, I also support Nicole’s efforts to find her own ground.  I appreciated how director Noah Baumbach symbolised their close yet awkward relationship with the scene where Charlie and Nicole draw the house gate closed together but end up on opposite sides afterwards.  Additionally, I loved how Baumbach incorporated a conversation on double standards into the film and addressed how there is much greater pressure on women to be “good” parents than on men.  Unfortunately, sexism is still common in the twenty-first century, and I believe that this scene was incredibly necessary.  Although not as exciting as the previous Friday Films, Marriage Story thoroughly explores relevant themes such as modern romance, the overwhelming complexity of the justice system (confusing legal jargon such as “serving” papers, and all the attorneys Charlie had to consult), self-confidence, and the idea of belonging somewhere.  After seeing Marriage Story, I realise that open and honest communication and direct cooperation are sometimes more valuable and productive than involving third parties and bitter arguments about who was right or wrong.

Side-note: Adam Driver has a surprisingly decent singing voice.

Favourite quote: “Criminal lawyers see the worst people at their best, and divorce lawyers see good people at their worst.”

“A Divorce Story” would’ve been a much more accurate title for “Marriage Story”. The movie did a really good job of portraying the frustrating and exasperating process of divorce. The audience can feel and share Charlie and Nicole’s frustration with every aspect of the process. There was one point during the movie where I just wanted to run away and I wanted it to be over. As with every movie, I expected to side with one of the characters, expecting one of them to be in the wrong and the other in the right. However, towards the end, I just found myself rooting for their kid. I wanted him to end up happy, since I know that a lot of kids of divorce end up being put in difficult positions.

I don’t know what marriage is. I will get married at some point but it’s not in the near foreseeable future. Watching this movie, at first, I thought this was about marriage of a happy couple. But it was about a once happily married couple getting divorced. As a never married person, it was new and awakening to watch and go through the divorce process through the movie. I never imagined all the complications before. I kept thinking while watching the movie that if I get married, I would be very careful with who I marry so I wouldn’t divorce like the main characters. But I was saddened that they would have once had that confidence about their marriage before. Their divorce starts from an affair of the husband. Wife finds out and plans her divorce. The process seems peaceful for a very short while. But from hiring a lawyer, preparing documents, flying to California, everything becomes hectic very quickly. By the end, the husband realizes how neglectful he has been toward his wife’s dream, his child and his family. He gives up on everything he had worked for in NYC and moves to California where his families are at. It felt to me that they became more like a family than they were before the divorce. Overall, it was a lessonful movie to appreciate your family more when you have them. Be more aware of them and be thankful.

I recently had the pleasure of watching the film Marriage Story staring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson. While many good movies move me to happiness or sadness or many other common emotion, I was surprised to note during this movie that I actually felt, in a way, uncomfortable. Not in because the subject of the film was in some way horrifying or unfamiliar, but for precisely the opposite reason. It was so normal. To me, the brilliance of the film, and especially its primary actors, was how it showed the characters as normal people (albeit with extraordinary talents in their fields) going through a normal event but with abnormal circumstances. I was struck by how the main characters were still actual friends outside the courtroom, but vicious to each other inside (driven on by their expensive lawyers). The discomfort for me came from how believable BOTH types of interactions were, as I have experienced my own similar dichotomy of love/hate in my life, but have never seen it portrayed so well in film. Indeed, the primary motivation behind all the vitriol was in fact love, the main characters’ love for their son and their desire for custody which was manipulated for gain by the lawyers. In short, the film brilliant to me not in how it portrays or humanizes the extraordinary, as some great films do, but how it shows how extraordinary the events that regular people go through truly are, for them.

I decided to attend the Friday Night film: Marriage Story as a form of relaxation. Initially, I expected for the film to be really good because it was nominated for many Oscars. But I was highly disappointed by the plot and context of the film. Although it was unique in the fact that it isn’t a normal love story, I didn’t really enjoy Scarlett Johansson’s character and many interactions between her and her husband were cringe-worthy. 

By the end of the movie, I was emotionally exhausted because the movie was all over the  place. The movie really helped what I learned in class come full circle. It is clear that in our current age people aren’t getting married as often, while divorce rates are getting higher. I think this is primarily caused by the lack of communication between both parties. In the movie, the two characters’ main issues stemmed from their inability to communicate with each other and their selfishness to compromise. Overall, I liked the message of the movie but I didn’t like the way it was presented.

A couple, once happily married, decides to divorce.  At first, they agree to have a friendly, fair, and amicable divorce without the use of attorneys.  However, at some point that ends and an all out war begins.   They find themselves more concerned with winning then doing what was best for their young child.  This was a powerfully sad movie.  The acting was excellent and the characters seemed so real.  It felt more like I was watching a documentary about a real couple then a fictional movie.  I could feel the actors emotions throughout the movie, which made my sadness for the couple even more intense. The despair and anguish that the characters were going through made it even more obvious that the decision of marriage has to be done with careful thought because the dissolution of a marriage will likely be completely awful.   This is probably not a movie you want to bring your date to unless you were looking to push the relationship toward a break up.

Marriage Story is a really nice film about a married couple’s process to divorce. The film’s plot and details really call into question which party is at fault, who caused the relationship to break apart, and whether there could have been a compromise that could have saved their marriage. At the beginning of the movie, Charlie and Nicole are at a couple’s therapist, who have instructed them to write out the positive aspects that the see in their spouse. Although Charlie is willing to say what he wrote, Nicole refuses and storms out of the room. From the get-go, it seems as if Nicole is unwilling to make amends in their relationship, and the audience is inclined to support Charlie; however, it is later revealed that Charlie had an affair with an actor in his theater group, which is a contributing factor to their eventual divorce. As the movie goes on, the film reveals more of the characters’ personality and their differing perspectives on their relationship, and these added bits and pieces of information entangle our judgement of who is in the right and who is in the wrong. I think the best aspect of this movie is how it contributes to the audiences understanding of the relationship by including various points of view. Henry, G-ma, Cassie, Nora, Jay, and actors in the theater group all have various perspectives of Charlie and Nicole due to the nature of their respective relationships to Charlie and Nicole. However, it is important to see that the most important people that influence that marriage is Charlie and Nicole themselves, not their lawyers, relatives, or friends. While these people all may have their own personal feelings, opinions, and motives, at the end of the day, Charlie and Nicole split on their own terms.

Tonight I watched Marriage Story, a movie about a divorce. I had lots of interest in the movie going into it, because a good friend of mine (who I watched the movie with) is a big fan of Adam Driver. Adam Driver played the main character, Charlie, who was the husband getting served the divorce. This is the first movie with Adam Driver that I’ve seen, and I must admit that I am very impressed with his acting capabilities. Charlie was a very complex character, with pent up emotions but good intentions, and Adam captured that balance well.

The movie was basically the story line of a marriage breaking apart. It was especially stress inducing to watch because a young son was involved. I didn’t expect such a ubiquitous process to be so dramatic and tense. I have not personally heard about what going through a divorce is like, but I have heard that it is a miserable process in general. The movie shines a light on the legal process of divorce as being the main source of animosity. Both parties try to sabotage each other by “winning” areas of their lives that they once shared — such as a home or a child. Instead of a clean 50/50 split, they try to get 55/45 so that they can say they “won.” All of it seems very petty and immature to me, considering the reason for divorce is often due to differences in life goals. It was also eye-opening to realize how the deal you end up with is dependent on the quality of your lawyer, and therefore the amount of money you can shell out. It is unfortunate that tens of thousands of dollars has to be shunted away from the child’s education so that the divorce can take place.

The movie had a semi-sweet ending, in which the son discovers a note in which the ex-wife had written about why she fell in love with Charlie (ex-husband) — and Charlie finds the son reading it. Charlie had not seen the note before, and is brought to tears after reading it. The wife also walks in and sees the scene unfolding, being reminded of what she appreciates about her ex-husband deep down. I like that there is mutual respect by the end of the movie, despite some ugly verbal insults being exchanged.

On Friday night, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Marriage Story. The movie was about the struggles of a marriage but mostly the emotional distress of a divorce. This was far different than most movies I have seen about relationships. The movie gave a unique perspective of the reality of many marriages and how they could go wrong. It’s also interesting how the title (without any other knowledge of the movie plot) could be depicted both positively and negatively. I think the title hints that there was no forgetting of the marriage even after the divorce. Rather, it was a drastic shift in their encounters. What was also shown in the movie was the tremendous impact a divorce has on their child’s day-to-day life. It’s sad that many children have to experience struggles like that. Another interesting feature of the movie was the comedic aspect shining light in the time of darkness. I would highly recommend this movie as it showed a new perspective on marriage/divorce.