Rotten Tomatoes have a 97% freshness, MetaCritic score is 94, and Douban score is 8.8.
was shortlisted for the main competition of the Venice Film Festival and led the Golden Globes with 6 nominations.
was also listed in the top ten of the year by the American Film Society, Time magazine, and Empire magazine.
This highly-reputable and highly anticipated masterpiece of Olympics has finally come -
Marriage Story
Marriage Story
Directed by: Noah Baumbach
Screenwriter: Noah Baumbach
Starring: Scarlett Johnson / Adam Driver / Merritt Weaver / Laura Dunn
Release date: 2019-12-06 (USA)
Length: 136 minutes
The protagonist of the film is playwright Charlie (Adam Driver href and actor Nicole (Scarlett Johansson).
They are the right couple in life and complementary partners in career.
plus the weird youngest son Henry , the family of three lives happily and sweetly.
Like all loving couples, they can count each other's advantages and remember each other's various details.
For example, in Charlie's eyes, Nicole is cheerful, generous and energetic.
She loves to play with her children, likes to fill up the refrigerator, and can help the whole family cut their hair, and she is still very strong.
Although you are a little careless at home, you can always be thoughtful and enthusiastic when dealing with others outside.
In short, she is his royal best actress .
But no actor only takes one director's play in his lifetime.
So Nicole made an unexpected and reasonable decision -
She was leaving Charlie's troupe and quit the marriage.
Maybe you will ask, does Nicole no longer love Charlie?
No, she still loves Charlie, even deeper than Charlie.
But, she doesn't want to feel wronged anymore.
When I was young, Nicole and Charlie were film actors who worked hard in Hollywood, and the other was a drama director who was seeking development in New York.
After the two fell in love at first sight, Nicole resolutely gave up the opportunity to stay in Los Angeles to continue chasing her dream of film, and willingly followed Charlie to his city.
From then on, Nicole disappeared on the big screen.
On the stage exclusively for Charlie, she received applause from the audience.
, but gradually, Charlie's creative talent obscured Nicole's acting talent.
People are keen to talk about the dramas of the new director Charlie, but no one cares about the acting skills of the heroine Nicole.
Nicole endured it.
After many years of marriage, she just endured her silently, without saying a word, and endured her neglect by the audience, the media and awards alone.
Until one day, Los Angeles once again threw an olive branch to her, and she was invited to star in the pilot episode of a well-paid TV series.
Nicole was naturally very happy.
She thought she could go back to the set that made her shine.
She feels that her value as an actor has once again been recognized for a long time.
But she never expected that Charlie would give such a mean and selfish reaction.
Not only did he mock the series, he was jealous of Nicole's opportunity, but he also asked her to vote for the troupe.
Nicole was completely heartbroken.
She made up her mind to leave Charlie. The
video starts from here.
So, it is called "marriage story", but it is actually a divorce story.
After performing the last stage play with Charlie, Nicole set out to Los Angeles to shoot the pilot episode.
After the introduction of the crew, Nora became Nicole's divorce lawyer.
In order to reverse the adverse situation, Charlie had to hire a lawyer to defend himself at a high price.
After a while, a battle for Henry's custody began quietly between the two.
As we all know, a lawsuit is a process of pulling back and forth between hostile parties.
The point where divorce lawsuits are more cruel than other lawsuits is that, as Charlie's lawyer said, it will expose a good person's ugly side.
In other words, it deepens hostility and "creates" evil people.
You used to be a family, and maybe they can still be friends after breaking up.
But once a divorce lawsuit is launched, those intimacy and beauty are destined to turn into passing clouds.
Therefore, most of the video is used to portray the opposition between the two parties.
Endless debate and refutation constitute the main theme of the story. In the
film, several complete quarrel scenes have obvious progression on the level.
Before Nicole left Los Angeles, the conversation between the two was still mild.
can hear Charlie's concession and retention from his tone, and can see Nicole's unbearableness and attachment from his expression.
Last second they pretended to be rational and discussed the performance that night.
KA just finished saying good night, when she turned her head, Nicole's tears burst out from her eyes.
She forced herself to stop making a sound, but her expression was out of control.
The blue veins at the neck also fluctuate and beat with the rhythm of sob, which is heartbreaking.
This separated atmosphere is as quiet as stagnant water, and as heavy as lead core.
With her delicate grasp of facial twitching, Scarlett presented her first excellent performance in this film.
and the strong contrast was the quarrel between them at Charlie's new home.
This is the highlight of the whole film.
If the argument that happened between the two people before, about whether to reward the child, whether to find a lawyer, about not installing a child safety seat, she hacked into his email... they were just a small fuss.
So, this time, they really broke up.
However, this time, they finally reached the core of the conflict.
In the empty house, Charlie and Ni can be honest and honest in a nearly naked and crazy state.
is no longer pretending to praise at the request of the mediator.
no longer hides behind the lawyer, silent.
instead face to face, denounced the other party’s sins in person and expressed his dissatisfaction sternly.
0 is very ugly.
Nicole said that Charlie was selfish, which made her feel disgusted; Charlie said that Nicole was sloppy, which was a collection of shortcomings.
Nicole accused Charlie of cheating, saying that he did not give the same love as her; Charlie retorted that if Nicole hadn't been anxious to get married, he would have been more famous. The final ending of
is similar to most quarrels in this world that have lost their minds.
Nicole scolded Charlie for bastard; Charlie said he hoped Nicole would die.
This sounds harsh, but it is very common for couples.
It is because of being too intimate that he dares to say such an outrageous words, knowing that the other party won’t mind.
Sure enough, Nicole did not leave, but stepped forward and hugged Charlie who was collapsed.
everything is clear.
The gentle hug at this moment confirmed that they were still in love, but the sharp words just announced that they had to separate.
In Nicole's view, Charlie forced her to give up her career; Charlie believed that Nicole's abandonment bound his hands and feet.
It turns out that both of them go against each other from beginning to end, and they never really understand each other's difficulties.
Now, even though they understand the contradictions, and on the basis of choosing the path of life, even if they love each other, there is no need to continue to forcefully tie them together.
This sharp quarrel is undoubtedly the most memorable and colorful passage in this film, with perfect cooperation in the lines, performance and camera language.
At first, the two maintained etiquette, tried to communicate, and discussed things on the matter.
In such a huge space, they look so lonely and thin.
sits at both ends of the room, drawn by the wall or coffee table, and is far away from each other.
First, the camera is mainly medium and panoramic. The two are separated by objective things. But as they talk, the focus begins to shift, and communication, negotiation and explanation become complaining, ridicule and insult.
They are close to each other, but each occupy the main body of the picture.
In the flexible switching of Jingbian, the escalation of anger and the collapse of emotions are about to emerge, full of tension.
Then, the two got closer, but the close-up formed a more extreme opposition
At this point, I had to overturn a sentence I had said before.
The name "Marriage Story" is indeed more accurate than "Divorce Story".
Because it is on the surface, it is about the follow-up of a divorce incident, and essentially it is analyzing the relationship between the two genders in marriage.
Many times, nouns such as love, marriage, and union will confuse people's eyes and make people forget that gender is naturally linked to power.
. In today's social context, this extremely unfair and unequal power relationship is simply impossible to eliminate.
In Nicole and Charlie, the balance of gender power is tilted particularly significantly.
Look at their social identities - male directors and female actors, another couple. The typical configuration of
contains double inequality, which is a severely affected area of gender discrimination and stereotypes.
On the one hand, when starting a family, the fixed mindset of the male protagonist outside and the female protagonist inside still dominates the mainstream of public opinion.
On the other hand, in terms of social division of labor, the public also tends to affirm men's abilities and are skeptical of women.
Therefore, Charlie's lawyers arrogantly attributed Nicole's achievements in acting career to Charlie in court.
But aren’t the director and the actors achieving each other?
Has Charlie's script not taken inspiration from Nicole?
However, men have long been used to taking what they have for granted.
Even women are treated as objects, and everything she gets through hard work belongs to men.
But objectively speaking, the harmony and happiness of Charlie and Nicole's family are exchanged for Ni's sacrifice in her own career.
Before they met, they shone in their respective fields.
After getting married, Charlie became successful, but Nicole dreamed of breaking New York.
Charlie's defense is that he also lost a lot in his marriage.
He lost the possibility of being on the cover of more magazines, and he lost the freedom to linger among countless women.
But after all, Nicole gave up her film career first.
You should know that abandonment and loss are completely different concepts.
Give up is active, and loss is passive.
Give up means she will have nothing to do.
, he has lost some glamor, at least he still has the bottom line.
But compared to Nicole, Charlie has done a lot of things he wants to do
It is true that the problem of love needs to be shared by two people.
However, based on the imbalance of the gender power structure, responsibilities are often not evenly distributed.
is actually not difficult to see that in the writing of the script, screenwriter and director Noah Baumbach tried his best to treat the couple equally.
He outlined the dilemma of both sides at the same time, and he intended to shape Nicole into the lesser fault and more empathetic side.
The most important thing is that he asked Nicole to tell a fact that many men know clearly but are ashamed to admit:
In many marriage relationships, the husband does not treat his wife as an independent individual.
For this point alone, I was moved by his openness, sincerity, humility, and his reflection and criticism of the group he belongs to, as a man, and his comfort and recognition of women.
But unfortunately, Noah still seemed to have inadvertently revealed a hint of bias towards Charlie.
Because, about thirty minutes after the opening, Nicole's complaint about the entire marriage is the only complete narrative of this film from a female perspective.
This is also Scarlett's second highlight moment in the film.
After that, the right of voice was transferred to Charlie.
We see him looking for a lawyer, taking care of the children, accepting the assessment awkwardly, and singing love songs lonely.
He plays an overwhelming one-man show, while Nicole is put aside and is not cast with the same concern and long-lasting gaze.
This may not necessarily arouse the audience's mercy, but the director's potential position is self-evident.
At this level, I do not admit the neutrality of this film.
Although Noah did not hold high the banner of feminism, he did not deliberately excuse men.
But the narrative thinking that is unconsciously biased towards the male side is inherent in his values and the deep structure of the society we live in. It is a deeply rooted chronic disease, and it is even more a hidden disease that is unaware of. The same goes for
Charlie.
He probably never realized that he had been suppressing Nicole's ambitions and desires invisibly.
When Nicole temporarily put his family and future in Los Angeles behind him, he never thought that Nicole was accommodated by his choice.
This city matches his life pace and can give him a brighter career prospect and make him feel at ease and comfortable.
But Nicole misses Los Angeles.
Slowly, Nicole's admiration gave him the capital to be arrogant, and Nicole's forbearance became his arbitrary weapon.
When he refused to move to Los Angeles for a year and a half, when he opposed Nicole's filming, when he ignored Nicole's directorial dream, when he did not take Nicole's intention seriously when purchasing furniture, he was not deliberately fighting Nicole.
He puts himself first in everything for too long, and I don’t remember that Nicole also has the right to raise objections.
Charlie loves Nicole, he sincerely believes that Nicole is the best actress in his life.
But this seems to be the biggest compliment he can give to Nicole.
"My Best Actress" in Charlie's words have two implications:
First, Ni is his; second, Ni is an actor.
While expressing love with romantic rhetoric, he also subconsciously set limits for Nicole's goals, abilities and even attributes.
Cha ideally thought Nicole was nominated for the actor award
He might regard this as some supreme honor, but did Ni think so?
After the divorce, Ni Guo’s actions gave the answer.
Charlie can get the Mac Arthur bonus, and Nicole can also be nominated for the Emmy Award for Best Director. There is a stage supervisor in the
group having an affair with Charlie, and the crew also has top-notch handsome guys pursuing Nicole.
Nicole was completely refreshed after leaving Charlie, which is enough to show that she has the strength to make a fortune.
Compared to the accessories of the humble, depressed man who is labeled and cannot find himself,
of course she prefers this confident, happy, charming and ideally independent woman.
In the new relationship, she belongs to herself.
After countless quarrels and embarrassments, the end of the film is unexpectedly peaceful and warm.
Charlie and Nicole's marriage ended in failure after all.
, in my opinion, their intimate relationship, process is consistent, and the result is complete, leaving no regrets .
It is not a profile of the truth that makes people lose their yearning for marriage from then on.
It just presents the audience a reality that people who love each other may not be suitable for companionship.
Only by recognizing this matter can one feel relieved of many loves that end without success. In the
film, for Nicole and Charlie, the couple who are fighting a divorce lawsuit, anger and resentment are true, but care and concern are absolutely true.
Even though they have broken up, in many occasions and situations where there is no need to pretend to be strong, their love for each other still dominates their instinct.
The first time I went to see a lawyer, Charlie broke up with the lawyer because he was unwilling to seize custody of the child at the cost of malicious slandering Nicole.
As for Nicole's side, when the lawyers' private negotiations happened to be lunch time, wasn't it still the meal she ordered for Charlie? The last scene of the whole film is even more moving.
When divorce has become a certain fact and there are new people around you,
Nicole will still naturally lean down, pat Charlie's feet, and tie his scattered shoelaces.
and other warm scenes are everywhere in the film, running through the entire divorce storm.
is insignificant compared to the endless arguments; they are vulnerable in the face of gritting curse.
But these lifelike scenes survived the wreckage of marriage.
They escape, they extend, and they seal the mark of love in the dimension outside of marriage.
Nicole cut Charlie's hair for the last time
At the end of the video, Charity came up with the letter that Nicole could not read.
In her eyes, this man is firm, persistent, organized, clean, clear in thinking and talented.
It only took her two seconds to fall in love with him.
And the last sentence is -
"I will never stop loving him, although it doesn't make any sense anymore."
*Author of this article: kiwi
