Skip to main content

Marriage Story

Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver. Laura Dern, Alan Alda, and Ray Liotta co-star.

 Noah Baumbach directed--Squid and the Whale; Margot at the Wedding

 I liked both of those, especially Margot, but this not so much.  Main flaw: way too long.  It's really a divorce story.  Charlie (Driver) is hot=shot theatre director in NYC. Nicole (SJ) is actress who gains stature with his group, but was known before for a teenage romp (filmed in LA) in which she appears topless.  They have one child.  So, it's Charlie's hotshot career vs. Nicole's supporting actress career.  NYC vs. Los Angeles.  Sort of in the middle is their child, but he seems oddly passive, goes with the flow.

 Three or four arguments about whether or not Charlie promised to spend time in LA or not.  Three or four arguments about whether Charlie respects Nicole's ambitions and talent.  

 Movie is well over two hours.  At ninety minutes or so, it would have been much better

 Big, screaming fight in Charlie's apt (he punches wall) ends with Charlie sobbing.  This long fight really looked like a bid for an academy award to me.  Similarly, Charlie sings "Being Alive" at a bar after divorce goes through (cue the tears) and Scarlett does an entertaining little song and dance at a party for her child (see--she's really talented).  

 Laura Dern and Ray Liotta were great as nasty divorce lawyers.  Alda had bit part as divorce lawyer who gets fired. Court scenes were completely unrealistic

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Puppy, Story by George Saunders

PUPPY  Dysfunctional family has puppy that they need to get rid of.  Mom places ad; family is coming over. Description of family.   Mom:  husband changed from long-haired attractive to stooped old man. Husband: talks constantly of living on a farm and doing what needs to be done, though he never lived on a farm.   Conversations together:   Sell and move to Arizona, get hooked on phonics for kids, buying a car wash. . . wonderful randomness. Straight-laced suburbanite comes to look at puppy.  Seems like she will buy it, even though she is repelled by house.  (Dog turds on carpet, filthy.) She is proud of how accepting she is until she looks out window and sees white trash's son tied by harness to a tree.  Reader knows he is a menace to himself, darting across I-90, for example.  Suburban mother beats hasty retreat, leaving dog to be (probably) drowned by dad who does what has to be done.   Suburbanite remembers her own pathetic ch...
Post a Comment
Read more

Napoleon 14 Amiens

"Ambassadors are essentially spies with titles."  Napoleon President of Italy . . . Peace treaty with England (Amiens) in March 1802, with Turkey in June 1802 . . . flawed peace treaty with England because there was no opening up of France for trade with England, infuriating the English who thought peace would mean trade. . . tourism, though--Brits come to Paris and admire Napoleon . . . British liberals enamored . . . Napoleon "consul for life" . . . lots of unsettled territories, Switzerland being the largest . . . Industrialization much greater in England than France . . . France in 1802 is about the same as England in 1780 as a manufacturing center . . . Napoleon is basically Anglophobic, complaining of any art work that celebrates English victories being shown in Louvre . . . peace unraveling . . . by 1803 . . .  War May 18, 1803! . . . Louisiana Territory sold, advantageous to both parties.  France gets money; USA gets land.  France avoids possible war with ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tess of the D'Urbervilles, continued 2/3rds

"To all humankind, Tess was only a passing thought. Even to friends, she was only a frequently passing thought." Angel Clare is a good character. He's "enlightened," in so many ways, but when Tess's confesses her "crime," he reverts to ancestral form . . . Tess's "confession" comes earlier than I expected, right after Angel reveals that he has had a bad moment with a woman. Tess points out the similarity in their transgressions, though his is the only true transgression, expecting forgiveness. She doesn't get it. She returns to her mother . . . realizes she can't stay with her. Thoughts to suicide. Unhappiness that divorce is not possible. Departs. Tragic in that the two, if Angel could just see clearly, would indeed be a great couple, each adding to the other.  Nature as a definite force involved in the tragedy.  It's not neutral--when things go bad, the very skies mock Tess. Tess as unaware of the power of her bea...
Post a Comment
Read more