Marriage Story, the Netflix movie starring Star Wars alumni Adam Driver and Laura Dern is receiving special screenings this week in the UK as part of the May Fair Hotel Gala. Tickets for the Friday night screening are still available at the time of posting of this article.
Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) is an actor. Charlie (Adam Driver) is a director. Together, they run a New York-based theatre company. They’re also married and have a son. But Nicole is a West Coaster who craves a different pace and a healthier life for their family. Charlie can’t bear California for too long. Accepting a temporary separation while Nicole takes a film job in LA, the dissimilarities in their desires become a chasm. It’s an economical plot, the gradual unravelling of a marriage, but the great pleasure – and agony – lies in the details. Baumbach is a master of understanding what makes people tick and of finding the bitter hilarity in even the most desolate emotional scenes, such as Charlie steadily falling apart under the unforgiving eye of a family custody worker observing him with his son. Johansson and Driver are exceptional, as are Laura Dern and Ray Liotta, playing spiky and hilariously well-observed West Coast divorce lawyers. Baumbach gives them all so many great moments to shine (and they do!) as he shoots on gorgeous 35mm with a 1.66 aspect ratio that foregrounds performance, often with startling long takes. Alongside the likes of Shoot the Moon and Kramer vs Kramer, Marriage Story is vintage cinema about breaking up, while trying to keep it together.
Although not guaranteed for every screening, Adam Driver, and Laura Dern are attending at least part of the festival.
