Marriage Story

First Hit: Well-acted story about a challenging process that many people go through — divorce.

This is a story about Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole (Scarlett Johansson), who met in Los Angeles and moved to New York City, where Charlie was living. They got married, worked together in Charlie’s theater company, and had a young child, a boy named Henry (Azhy Robertson).

Over time, the story has Nicole becoming lost in Charlie’s shadow. Although she is the star of all his stage productions, she feels overshadowed. She’s also a long way from her LA family and her family home. Her mother and father were in show business, and before meeting Charlie, Nicole had received some fame for one of her television appearances.

As they contemplate the divorce, there seems to be an unspoken agreement that they will do this amicably. It is spoken that they both want the best for Henry and that both want to be involved in raising Henry.

During the opening scenes showing each of them in brief scenes while a voiceover has each of them stating what they like, love, or struggle with the other person. As the scene unfolds into a current moment, they are both sitting in front of a marriage counselor mediator. Each of them has been asked to read these statements about the other. Charlie is ready willing and able; Nicole is not and storms out of the office.

This made me wonder about some other underlying cause of her wanting to end the marriage. We do learn later that Charlie had a one-time affair with one of the people in his theater company.

The film takes a journey across the US from New York City to Los Angeles, where Nicole and Henry visit her mother. She has decided to stay there, despite her acting in the couples’ latest play heading to Broadway.

Charlie travels out to visit Henry. While in LA, he learns that Nicole has seen an aggressive attorney Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern), who is pushing to make this divorce contentious. When he’s served with divorce papers, he feels blindsided. To protect his interests, Charlie engages a Los Angeles lawyer, Jay Marotta (Ray Liotta), who wants a $25K retainer to come up with a plan to make sure Charlie gets his son Harry in New York.

However, the aggressiveness of the whole thing turns Charlie off, so he engages a new, more passive attorney Bert Spitz (Alan Alda). During a discussion with Nicole and Nora, Charlie realizes things are out of control for him.

The film then moves to tell what happens to Charlie and Nicole as they go through the divorce court process and the subsequent fallout. A touching scene towards the end shows Henry reading Nicole’s list of traits to Charlie, and Nicole is standing near the door listening in. Very touching.

Driver is excellent as Charlie. The scene in the bar when he’s singing to his theater company employees was wonderfully staged and felt very real. Johansson was terrific as Nicole. I felt as though she captured questioning being swallowed up in Charlie’s life well. Robertson, as Henry, was enjoyable as Charlie and Nicole’s child. Dern was strong as an attorney who wanted her client to win on all counts. Alda was okay as the passive attorney who tried to weave the least obstructive way through the divorce. Liotta was powerful as Charlie’s aggressive attorney. Noah Baumbach wrote and directed this sensitive and sophisticated look at divorce.

Overall: This film touched many divorce subjects and implications both sensitively and effectively.

Wanderlust

First Hit:  There are some funny moments but overall this film falls flat.

There is little chemistry, or palpable chemistry, between George (played by Paul Rudd) and Linda (played Jennifer Aniston) in this oddly constructed film.

I found the film odd because each situation they were in was overdone. His brother, his wife and their son were characterizations of people – they weren’t real. The old hippy/or commune situation was a little far fetched as well.

The funniest moments is when George is getting ready to have sex with Eva (played by Malin Akerman) and he was practicing his conversation in front of a mirror. What was coming out of his mouth was embarrassingly funny, crude yet very humorous.

The storyline is that George works at a Wall Street financial company while Linda tries different things to find herself and to make money but she strikes out often. They buy a small studio ("No it's a mini loft”) apartment near his favorite coffee house.

Shortly after her latest attempt to sell a film concept to HBO fails and he loses his job, they have to sell the apartment they just bought for a loss. They decide to go visit his brother in Atlanta. On the way they spend a night at a commune that offers a different way of life.

This film is about their decision to try something new and to more fully find each other. Nevertheless despite the good idea, this films writing, direction and acting was sub-par.

Rudd was at his best in front of the mirror attempting to get his courage up to make love with another woman. Aniston didn’t seem to connect to or even belong in the film. It just wasn’t the right vehicle for her. Justin Theroux as Seth the community leader was certainly nothing to write home about and his see through philosophy had little grounding in anything. The only time there was some hint that he was connected to a larger universe was when he played guitar but then again any good guitarist could have play it that way. Joe Lo Truglio as Wayne spent most of his time naked, but was pretty good as this annoying person who was on his own track in the community. Alan Alda as Carvin the person who founded this commune back in 1971 was at times winkingly cute. David Wain and Ken Marino wrote this marginally adequate script but Wain wrecked the good parts with less than crisp direction.

Overall:  This film would barely make entertainment on a late Sunday afternoon on DVD or Netflix.

Tower Heist

First Hit:  There are some very strong funny laughs in this totally improbable story.

From the beginning of the film, there are strong laughs, out loud laughs.

Maybe it helped that the woman behind me was fully engaged in her very out-loud amusing laugh at many of the situations. But like her, at times, I found some of this film very funny.

Arthur Shaw (played by Alan Alda) is a Bernie Madoff type character who has been accused of inappropriate use of investor money. “The Towers” where he lives in the penthouse suite which has his pool on the roof and a hundred dollar bill painted on the bottom.

“The Towers” (looking like Trump Tower), has a staff that is there to fully serve the residents. The manager is Josh Kovacs (played by Ben Stiller) who has a staff of willing workers including Charlie (played by Casey Affleck) the concierge, Lester (played by Stephen Henderson) the doorman, and Odessa (played by Gabourey Sidibe) as a chambermaid.

There is also a resident named Mr. Fitzhugh (played by Matthew Broderick). When Shaw is arrested trying to sneak out of the country by FBI special agent Claire Denham (played by Tea Leoni), the staff realizes that all their money, invested by Shaw, is gone. After a suicide attempt by Lester, the staff and Mr. Fitzhugh decide to find the $20 million dollar stash that is believed Shaw has hidden in his penthouse.

Also in the Penthouse is Shaw’s pride possession, a Ferrari once owned by Steve McQueen. The staff, guided by, their expert thief Slide (played by Eddie Murphy) set out to find the $20M only to find more but not in the form they expected.

Stiller is perfect as the controlling, yet flexible, Manager. Alda is beyond perfect as the arrogant financier who thinks he’s getting away with something. Murphy is great as the smart-alecky thief. Affleck is very good as the overly cautious father-to-be, who is only looking to have his baby born healthy. Sidibe is funny in this comedic role. Broderick is more forlorn than usual which fits him. Leoni is very funny as the FBI agent who wants to play by the rule book, gets drunk well, and wants The Tower’s staff to get their just deserts. Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson wrote a funny and impossible story. Brett Ratner did a good job of pulling laughs from the characters and dealing with improbability.

Overall: This film has a great cast, was funny often but what and how they rob Shaw was not realistic.

Flash of Genius

First Hit: What a wonderful story about a man going up against a corporation.

My father had a company which built fiberglass parts for the Shelby 350 and 500 mustang cars. This was in the late 1960’s. Although the parts coming off the molds met specifications, Ford was having a hard time using them because their cars weren’t meeting specs. So Ford decided to not meet their end of the agreement which put my dad’s company in financial trouble. Because they were such a large corporation, my dad’s company lawyer told them not to try to sue Ford because they will lose. It caused a lot of heartache to my family and the families that worked at my dad’s company.

Later in life we learned that we would have won a lawsuit against them.

The story of Robert Kerns (played by Greg Kinnear) is a story like the one I experienced, except he went after and sued Ford. He went after them because they stole his design and made money off of it. This is a great David and Goliath story.

Greg Kinnear is wonderful as a father trying to teach his children that there are things worth fighting for. And despite the odds and the personal cost (not only money, but family and friends), in the end it is a worthy fight. The whole film is concise and clear to its aim. Alan Alda is excellent playing a lawyer who initially wants to help Kerns but in the end is really out to help himself.

Overall:  This is really a good film and well worth seeing as Kinner embodies this character and really brings him to life.