Marriage Story Movie Analysis Essay Example

Nominated for a Best Motion Picture Oscar in 2019, “Marriage Story” tugs on every heartstring with its picture of a marriage turning into a divorce while attempting to keep a family together. Writer and director Noah Baumbach perfectly shows the story of a faltering marriage and a little boy put in between two adults who love each other but somehow can’t find a middle ground in their marriage.

With Oscar-nominated performances by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson playing the married couple Charlie and Nicole Barber, “Marriage Story” follows a hollowed-out relationship as the structure of the bond remains while the rest slowly melts away. 

The film begins with a heartwarming and beautifully filmed montage of videos from days in their life as a voice-over plays about what the pair love in each other. It’s adorable. Nicole reads about all of Charlie’s quirks and annoyances that she learned to love- and vice-versa for Charlie reading over Nicole.

This intro sets the viewers up for a stunning film that shows a married couple and their son thriving in New York that will be tied together through deep feelings and warmth. This feeling lasts for both the monologues until it’s revealed it’s a letter the pair wrote to start their divorce on a positive note.

As the film continues, we watch the couple continue to fall into a rabbit hole of divorce and the emotions that ensue. Although they had agreed to not get lawyers and do it with the utmost kindness, they both lawyered up and got ready for war as they use aggressive tactics for custody over their son Henry.

Divorce films are far from a new concept for Noah Baumbach. He first took on the topic in 2005 with his movie  “The Squid and the Whale” which follows two boys dealing with their parent’s divorce. Before that, he dealt with his own divorce and his parents.

As he returned to the topic of divorce in his films with “Marriage Story” the title seemed ironic considering the whole movie is based around their divorce, right? Wouldn’t “Divorce Story” make much more sense? No, It wouldn’t at all. In fact, “Marriage Story” is better than any other title that this film could’ve had.

Every marriage is made of a story, especially ones like Charlie and Nicoles where they end in divorce. Each person comes to the marriage with a story, then they get to create another story together. For any two people with immense amounts of backstory and baggage, they have to be able to communicate and talk to each other about everything. This is exactly what Charlie and Nicole can’t do.

Charlie only sees his art as an end goal for his life and Nicole is a slob and irrationally moody. They both have their issues (especially in communication) and both get themselves in positions in their marriage they don’t know how to work themselves out of. 

I could go on about their issues and who’s side I think you should take in the divorce, but the beautiful thing about this movie is that there is no right or wrong side. Each person has very noticeable flaws in their personality and parenting styles, which shine brightly in the divorce.