Time has the power to heal, goes the cliche. If that is indeed the case, its converse that time has the power to warp should equally hold good. Yang for the yin. No better example of it than in the most unnatural relationship of the entire living world, marriage (or its more liberal brethren, the live-ins). Marriage is indeed a magnifying glass with the inherent ability to exaggerate things, with time serving as source of light above, shedding constant focus on every detail, trivial or otherwise. Some are lucky enough to survive its steady gaze, while some simply wither away. In both cases, the lens keeps moving up and down to settle on just the right focus and time keeps upping the heat with each passing second. And at just the right distance and enough intensity (call it careers, egos, personalities, priorities and dependecies) the contents underneath start to feel the heat and within no time, smoke, fumes and ash. Ironic it is that most marriages survive on the blissful ignorance of the participants, in that, apathy is the glue that binds the relationships. Care about anything enough, in a relationship, more, about something that the other partner gives two hoots about, the seeds of disharmony are sown and the harvest season is just around the corner. The skyrocketing numbers in divorces in the contemporary society are not because of any evolutionary change in the psyches of the males and females when compared to, say, a hundred years ago. Biologically, not much has changed. Psychologically though, the same passion that brings people together is the root cause for breaking them apart. And at the core of passion lies Care.
'Marriage Story', the name notwithstanding, is about the crumbling of the marriage of two caring individuals, each self-consumed by their individual interests while being self-absorbed in their own worlds. Good people, nonethless, but highly individualistic, nevertheless In fact, 'Marriage Story' is a generational update of the 70's 'Kramer vs Kramer', which was the first of its kind back then to talk about a relationship from the career standpoints of both the parties involved. Marriage being marriage, through all the generations, where once the man had a career and the female a home to take care of, when once the destiny of the woman was tied to the whims of the sole bread-winner, the equation changed when the modern world handed a career to a woman pushing her to compete with the man for the same honors, outside and inside the house. And the more they cared about their careers, the harder it became to maitain the marital balance. In 'Kramer', the female just bolts out of the relationship saddling the father to raise their lone kid all by himself only to come back later as a successful career-woman waging a custody battle for the kid. 'Marriage Story' starts off mildly first with an amicable separation to gradually lead into a mutually agreed divorce but quickly spirals out of control when lawyers on both sides take charge of the situation and try hard to win the case for their clients at the expense of everything that they have confided in each other, in private, in confidence, as a man and wife. That becomes the most damning and damaging part in the whole movie when the couple, through its lawyers, in a bid to defeat the other, lays bare the marriage in the courthouse in front of all, warts and all, and hopes to be judged not on one own's best tendencies but rather on the other's worst instincts. And give a(ny) marriage just enough time, the worst always bests the best.
The uncomfortable and yet the magnetic 'Marriage Story' rests primarily on the three legs of its great writing and fantastic performances of Scarlett Johannson and Adam Driver (with stellar support from Laura Dern, Ray Liotta and Alan Alda). The painful yet beautiful dialogue between the man and his wife, who come together, after their separation, for a little reconciliation for the sake of their kid, becomes a brutal watch, as the conversation snowballs from pleasantries to points-outs to jabs to knock-outs in no time. And after all the blood letting, the gunk gets washed away in steady streams of tears, temporarily, at least. The movie is as much about the inevitability of strain on the stability of marriage of career-minded individuals as it is about a legal system that is more concerned about the dispensing of the judgment than it is about the justice. And the lawyers, the experts, the consultants who all feed at the trough of broken relationships, all play their equitable part in fanning the flames of a relationship that is already on fire. Quite a funny sight in the movie, when the opposing lawyers laugh, mingle and socialize outside the courtroom, while the couple in question sit as far away from one other, underlining the point that marriage might be personal, but divorce is all business....nothing personal.
Oscar Baits 2020:
Parasite
1917
The Irishman
Bombshell
Once upon a time in Hollywood
checkout http://kanchib.blogspot.com for Srinivas's Blog.
