Marriage Story (2019)

I wish so badly I could separate the art from the artist, and this is the only reason I cannot give ‘Marriage Story’ the five stars it actually deserves. My own issues with Baumbach aside, however, and it’s shocking to me that a film so simple can be so nearly flawless (I mean this technically too; the film is shot, edited, paced and scored beautifully). Despite how much I cried, it finds beauty and comedy in the tiniest of moments. It’s an ugly portrait of two flawed people and therefore never easy to watch, but it is one of the most rewarding experiences I have had with a film in years. I just hope I never have to experience it myself.
- Ashley Teresa
Read Ashley's full article...
https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-marriage-story-simply-extraordinary

I don't have a kid. I've never been divorced. Or even married. Though I guess I was once a kid myself, I'm not the product of a divorced couple. I'm not even the product of a married one. Everyone I know who has gotten married or had kids did it before I met them, or stopped hanging out with me almost immediately afterward. Everyone I've ever met who got divorced either did it before I met them, or is someone I stopped hanging out with beforehand. So I don't come to the subject of _Marriage Story_ with a wealth of experience, which means it doesn't exactly scream "relatable content" to me.
Let me start where it's easiest and everyone seems to agree: The performances. Everyone in _Marriage Story_ is pretty great, none of the characterisations changed my life, but I get it. As a chance to display what these actors are capable of in a mundane setting where all that matters is their performance, yes, absolutely, _Marriage Story_ has buckets of success.
Outside of this though... I'm not even going to say that it "fails" elsewhere, just that it didn't win me. I like bleak movies, I like movies that make me feel something, even if it's sad. But _Marriage Story_ isn't really that. It poses you the question of whether both Charlie and Nicole are good or bad people, and shows you each from their own and other's perspective. The ending seems to imply that they're good, or at the very least both good and bad (and aren't we all?) but that really doesn't matter very much when we just spent all this time watching both of them be horrible. I know that's life, that's real, that's people, and blah bl-blah bl-blah, but that's little consolation when I've just spent two-plus hours of my life being not at all compelled by a bunch of people being awful. Being awful convincingly, to the actors' respective credits, but in this setting that is not my idea of a good time at the movies.
46%
-Gimly