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.

Mistress America

First Hit:  At times this film was really funny, however the point and feeling weren't lasting or memorable.

This is one of those films that can be entertaining and funny while watching it and it soon fades from memory. Tracy (Lola Kirke) is in college. She’s timid in the world.

She’s a writer and has little confidence in her writing, her ability to attract men, and has few friends. Her soon to be sister by marriage, Brooke (Greta Gerwig), lives in NYC and Tracy meets her for the first time. Immediately she discovers that Brooke is almost the opposite of her. Outgoing, confident, and connected with lots of people.

The humor is the way Brooke operates in the world and how Tracy reacts. Brooke spends most of the film trying to open a restaurant, meeting with people for its financing, spends time with friends where she is life of the party. She also has 100 new ideas a minute and one gets the sense she has a difficult time implementing the ideas.

The developing relationship between the two women helps Tracy gain confidence in herself and allows her to assert herself in the world and in her life. Some of the scenes, like when Brooke meets with investors, were effectively staged and well done.  

When Brooke and Tracy meet Brooke’s former lover, now married to Brooks former friend, was a little pushed at times and I’m not sure having the pregnant lady hanging around added anything except an occasional laugh. Some of the dialog was excellent and was both spiritual and anxiously shallow at the same time.

Kirke was good and very engaging at times. Gerwig was almost too aloof but created a strong character. Michael Chernus (as Dylan) and Heather Lind (as Mamie-Claire) were strong in their parts as former friends and lover. Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig wrote, at times, an insightful and funny script. However, it did get a little convoluted the rest of the time. Noah Baumbach did a good job keeping the odd story interesting and aimed to a conclusion.

Overall: This was an Interesting and forgetful film.

While We're Young

First Hit:  Uneven and the up moments happen more often than the down moments.

There are moments of insight, like when Josh (Ben Stiller) says that he’s been too focused on himself (his ego) and how he’ll be seen in the world instead of just doing the work.

He’s a documentary film maker that is 8 years stuck in a project. He’s an idealist and caught in his idealism. His wife Cornelia (Naomi Watts) has a famous documentary film maker father Leslie (Charles Grodin) and this adds all sorts of complications for all three of them.

Josh and Leslie strike up a friendship with Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried) who are almost 20 years younger than them. They enjoy the aliveness of this young couple and spend lots of time with them. But is the relationship really what it is perceived to be? That is the question Josh needs to figure out.

Stiller is OK, there is something about his intensity that worked for and against him in this role. Watts is far better and watching her learn hip-hop was funny and wonderful. Driver is strong as the guy who will bend the truth and look honest doing it. Seyfried was very good and her ability to be seen in the film this well as the fourth character shows her strength. Grodin was great as the crotchety, yet kind, documentarian. Noah Baumbach wrote and directed the film. There are strong moments as well as moments that needed to be cleaned up.

Overall:  It was enjoyable enough and there are some funny bits in this film that make it entertaining.

Greenberg

First Hit: A mildly entertaining film with one wonderful performance and one mediocre performance.

Ben Stiller plays another version of Ben Stiller. Comparing this to Woody Allen, who tends to play a version of himself in films, I am more intrigued by Allen and am usually bored by Stiller. Seeing Stiller playing another version himself was disappointing because he came off as self absorbed and not intellectually stimulating enough to warrant this sort of exposure.

Here he plays Roger Greenberg a guy who has just been released from a mental hospital in New York and has decided to stay at his brother Phillip’s (played by Chris Messina) house in California. Phillip and his wife Carol (played by Susan Taylor) have a nanny Florence Marr (played by Greta Gerwig) who becomes Roger’s contact point while he stays in their home for a month or so.

Roger is prone to fits of defensive anger and rudeness. He thinks he’s right and expresses his rightness regardless of how it may affect others. Roger is alone, lonely and generally depressed. The problem with all this is there’s little to indicate how or why he ended up in a mental hospital or what created this self absorbed person.

Conversely we have a small number of scenes with Florence at the beginning which give us a very clear picture of who she is and how she operates in the world.

So is this excellent acting by Gerwig and poor acting by Stiller? Or is this poor story development? My bet is that it is a little of both but mostly because Stiller continues to be Stiller and he just isn’t that interesting and is unwilling to embody the character he is playing.

Stiller is mediocre as Roger. Gerwig is wonderful at Florence. She was totally believable and made this film worth watching. Noah Baumbach had a good cast (except Stiller) to direct and this might have as interesting as “Margot at the Wedding” and “The Squid and the Whale” but fell short.

Overall:  This is worth watching on video but only if you have some time to kill.