How to self-consciously uncouple

Noah Baumbach’s new film, Marriage Story, starts with the end of a marriage. Charlie (played by Adam Driver) is a director in the world of off-Broadway theatre, and Nicole (Scarlett Johansson), a former teenage actor, is a leading stage performer. The couple lives in Brooklyn with an eight-year-old son, Henry. On the surface, they have made it. But Nicole is unhappy. She resents moving to New York from Los Angeles, where she grew up, to take care of their child and her husband’s ego. Though the film documents the messy separation of a once-perfect couple, it shows with great care how and why Charlie and Nicole drifted apart and why they can’t turn back. It’s a true tear-jerker, with enough love and some humour thrown in the mix.