here, he’s center stage, laboring to burn
through that mask and shake off that grog-
giness, and his drive toward being pres-
ent connects with his character’s, mak-
ing him very affecting. Johansson is even
more vivid, her hair sheared to give her no
tresses to twiddle or hide behind, her need
for reassurance right there on the surface.
But Nicole recedes in the story when the
lawyers take over and put Charlie through
the wringer. It’s his divorce story, nothers.
Baumbach’s main characters are written
and acted straight, as befits their personal
integrity, but the rest of MarriageStory
is done in a satirist’s broad strokes—apen-
etrating, often inspired satirist’s.Laura
Dern plays Nicole’s lawyer, NoraFan-
shaw (the description “high powered”is
unavoidable), and Dern’s genius is innail-
ing Fanshaw’s genius for creating aninti-
macy with her clients that’s both genuine
and calculated. (My heart flutteredwhen
Nicole told Charlie about her new lawyer
and added, “I feel like we could be friends
with her.” Nicole is such an easy mark.)
Ray Liotta is in clover as Jay, Fanshaw’s
counterpart on Charlie’s side, the actor’s
glassy deadpan the perfect vehicle forJay’s
practiced cynicism. The idea is thatDern’s
and Liotta’s characters are scorched-earth
advocates drawing blood even astheir
respective clients writhe at the damage
being done. Alan Alda is marvelous asBurt
Spitz—the elderly, menschy attorneyto
whom Charlie turns when he’s spookedby
Ja y’s legalistic shivs—who demonstrates
to Charlie that, in this context, “human
decency” translates as “impotence.”The
incomparable Merritt Wever doesmuch
with her little role as Nicole’s dotty, unteth-
ered sister, but Julie Hagerty’s charmcan’t
quite compensate for the cheap shotsat
her character, Nicole’s mother, whosubtly
undermines her daughters by allyingher-
self with their exes.
The best things in Marriage Storyare
small moments that resonate like mad,my
favorite being when Nicole makes abad-
taste joke to Charlie about her mothering
skills and quickly adds, “That was ajoke,”
to which Charlie responds eagerly thathe
knows and he feels the way she doesabout
the harsh spotlight that distortsthem
both. The worst things are the intended
showstoppers. I could live with Nicole,her
mother, and her sister performing“You
Could Drive a Person Crazy,” Sondheim’s
Anderson Sisters–like trio fromCom-
pany, because it’s goofy and high-spirited,
but Driver’s much-lauded uninterrupted-
take performance of the same musical’s
“Being Alive” made me cringe. Thesong
dramatizes the moment when Company’s
protagonist, Bobby, realizes that hewants
someone to regularly pop his bubbleof
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