So Frances Ha, for instance. fell flat for me. I think Greta Gerwig is a terrific actress, but I remembered resenting the fact that a white actor-director duo could get a movie so slight (it's essentially about how a late twenty-something child of privilege can function on her own without being bankrolled by her parents) made.
The Squid and the Whale (as well as his immersive doc about Brian DePalma) was an exception for me -- I think because it was genuinely funny. I quite liked his The Meyerorwitz Stories movie, although I haven't felt compelled to revisit it since my first viewing. Again, his films feel slightly out of touch to me and a little too hipster clever for their own good.
That's part of why I was apprehensive about Marriage Story. Just like a lot of his films -- it seems semi-autobiographical -- it yet again centers around a fairly simple conflict of a divorcing couple wanting their child to live on opposite coasts. It's getting rapturous acclaim, particularly for its lead performances and making a lot of top 10 lists alongside undeniably more ambitious films like The Irishman and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
The good news is, that with the exception of a few very indulgent flourishes, this is a good Baumbach film. I am not sure it deserves the critical bombast its getting, but its certainly a warm, frequently funny and sometimes quite insightful take on the dynamics of divorce.
Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are both reliably terrific. Driver especially has evolved into one of the most interesting leading men working in Hollywood today. It's not just his unconventional looks and bearing (his Lurch-like frame is used to great effect here) but its his vulnerability, which creeps up on his face at the most disarming moments of the movie.I see why he is in the thick of the Best Actor race. It's not quite a showy performance, but its a sneakily sophisticated one that lingers with you when the film is over. Johansson probably earns slightly less screen-time and although she gets some meaty monologues to chew on, the center of the film is really Driver, who seems to be having the harder time coping with the end of their marriage.
Driver is clearly a stand-in for Baumbach here and the film is most likely inspired by his split with actress Jennifer Jason Leigh (in the film Driver is a theater director and Johansson his muse/star). You'll leave this film maybe feeling a little icky about that. While the movie hits home that Driver's character is selfish and stubborn, he is ultimately the character you feel yourself rooting for and the movie's arc is really his.
There are some colorful performances around the periphery from lovable character actors like Alan Alda, Ray Liotta and Laura Dern. Although, as much as I love Dern, this performance convinced me that Jennifer Lopez is the more deserving Oscar winner for Hustlers. Besides one very funny barn burner of a rant towards the end of the film, I feel like Dern is essentially just doing a riff on her Big Little Lies character.
It felt a little overlong to me -- it's well over two hours when two would have sufficed -- and as well-acted as it is it often could feel like a play more than cinema. And then it hit me -- this is essentially a West Coast bound Woody Allen movie. There's no creepy older man/younger woman romance in it, but it still has the same seriocomic rhythms and the sharply observant moments about human frailty.
Many of his films we're exactly relatable, yet got at some universal truths and had enough compelling content to justify their existence. In other words, Marriage Story's rapturous response is no Green Book/Bohemian Rhapsody style tragedy -- it just only scratches an itch for a certain kind of viewer in a certain kind socioeconomic bracket.
But it's worth a look for Driver and Johansson, who both give some of their best most emotional performances, and for Baumbach its certainly a confirmation that his singular voice will continue to endure for better or worse, for many years to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment