Blu-ray Review - Marriage Story
October 31, 2020
Writer/director Noah Baumbach has always permitted pieces of himself to inform his work, assessing stages of his life and experience with family through mostly effective dramedies, including his last endeavor, 2017's "The Meyerowitz Stories." With "Marriage Story," Baumbach goes to a dark place to assess the end of a life shared by two unhappy people, taking over two hours of screentime to assess the difficulties of a specifically challenged marital union. This one plays like Baumbach is flipping through pages of his diary, delivering frighteningly intimate work that remains focused on troubling psychological spaces, with the fingerprints of personal experience found all over the effort. "Marriage Story" is richly detailed, tastefully balanced with some needed comedy, and consistently attentive to the inner lives of the lead characters, who endure all the dehumanization of the divorce process in America. And yet, through the gloom and rising anxiety, Baumbach always preserves the heart of the moment, fleshing out the struggle of legal and emotional separation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com