Marriage Story (2019)

Marriage Story says it’s about two people, but the camera spends more time with Charlie, and you can feel the thumb on the scale. Nicole gets one huge monologue in her lawyer’s office and then a lot of watching. Otherwise, it’s brutally good. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson play a couple who still like each other, which makes every polite handoff of their kid worse. The lawyers bring the dark comedy. Laura Dern’s Nora is all warm hugs and sharp elbows, Ray Liotta bills like a shark in a nice suit, and Alan Alda is a sweet old man who keeps telling sad stories about his own marriages. The big fight in Charlie’s bare LA apartment starts calm and ends somewhere you’ll want to leave the room. Then Charlie sings a Sondheim song in a bar, and somehow it’s perfect. An 8.8 because it’s painfully honest about how two decent people learn to hurt each other on paper. $811 says you hear the word mediation anywhere this week and flinch a little.

What works: Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are devastating, and the lawyers, especially Laura Dern, turn a divorce into sharp, uncomfortable comedy.

What doesn’t: The movie leans toward Charlie’s side more than it admits, and Nicole gets less room to breathe after her big monologue.

Who it’s for: Grown-ups who like movies about real people arguing, and anyone who has ever had to split the holidays.