Relationships often come to a dead-end which are hard to move on from. The break-even point in a marriage forces a husband and a wife to lash out on each other for their choices and expectations. This similar idea has been portrayed in the movie ‘Marriage Story’. Directed by Academic Award-nominated filmmaker Noah Baumbach, the movie takes us on the journey of a husband and wife being divorced due to the differences among their personal choices.
Charlie Barber, the stage director and his wife Nicole Barber, an actor face a coast to coast divorce in the movie. Charlie wanted to stay in New York and work for his theatre. After immense efforts, he finally wanted to take it to Broadway. While Nicole who was an actor in his theatre company did not want to lead this life anymore. Their choices make them apart from each other. But the separation process hurts, even more, when there is a child to be looked upon!
IT IS BASED ON CLICHÉ
The movie is based upon the cliché every woman and a man have to face at some point as a couple. Being a mother, Nicole felt her choices were being ignored. While the husband did not realize her wishes and was focused more on work. Aren’t these issues being faced in almost every marriage? But the common clichés are told in the strongest possible way in Marriage Story.
WHEN THE LEGAL SYSTEMS TAKE OVER THE RELATIONSHIPS
Marriage Story is not only limited to the end of the relationships. It reflects the troubles that the legal system of divorce brings with it, coming out with the dark and emotional side of the partners.
Nicole consults a strong lawyer, Nora with whom she speaks her heart out. While Charlie was still struggling to afford a lawyer, soon he found Bert. But to compete for Henry’s custody, he needed a much stronger lawyer and he hires Jay Marotta. “The system rewards bad behavior”, is what Nora told Nicole. And then, to achieve their own wishes, the bad game began. The legal system not only takes away the essence of the relationship, but it brings a certain discomfort, boundaries, stress, pressure, and the sacrifices one has to make.
IT’S ABOUT THE SACRIFICES
While Charlie dreamt of staying in New York and making a fortune, Nicole wanted to move with Henry to Los Angeles to her family. The pain of losing each other was there but the lives they wanted to lead were different. Nicole was shattered when she got to know that Charlie had an affair with their teammate.
During the course of the movie, we might have felt sympathy towards Charlie for his uncontrollable emotions. What happens when your own child does not want to hang out with you anymore? This is what Charlie felt. Nicole too had to sacrifice a happily married life to pursue her own dreams. But the legal system made Charlie bound towards the fear of separation from his child and he decided to move to Los Angeles.
We cannot speak about taking sides as they both had their own choices to make. For the sake of their child, they both made sacrifices.
IT SPEAKS OUT PAIN IN A DIFFERENT WAY
We could see the pain in his eyes and not the physical pain he had when he had hurt his arm. Falling on the kitchen floor, he hid his wound from Henry and said, “I am okay”. The pain Charlie felt at the time was indescribable. The pain with which Nicole wanted to speak out the positive lines. She had written for her husband in front of the therapist was too difficult to handle. Maybe somewhere she did not want to love him for those things anymore or was too scared to not being able to leave. Moreover, when the couple lashed out on each other and then had a mental breakdown, the anger, frustration, emotions, were too fragile to care about.
Towards, the end of the movie, we saw Charlie reading out that letter with his son. “And I’ll never stop loving him, even if it doesn’t make sense anymore” brought tears in their eyes which explains that no matter what they went through, they loved each other unconditionally. The habit of being with each other was still there. Charlie had an option to go to a barber and get his haircut. But somewhere, he wanted Nicole to do it for him as always. Being physically apart from each other is far too easy than being in love and not being able to at the same time. This what the journey of Marriage story tells us.
What the ‘Marriage Story’, starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver on Netflix.
