Marriage Story Explained: Themes, Meaning and True Story 

thats great!

Oh my god. This COMMENT has touched me. Me and my husband are going through a lot but we havent mentioned getting divorce at all really

@@laurennloraezzz I'm sorry to hear you guys are going through it! It's so tough but don't lose hope!

I love a happy ending!

I'm really happy for you guys, I hope you're doing ok and I wish you and your husband and all your family love and happiness 💜💜💜

Or like La La Land

Like good will Hunting

@@Gadget-Walkmen Somewhat, yeah. They're both character-driven plots in that way

Like "LOst in Translation"

This whole "love each other but shouldn't be together" is so dumb

Accurate though I can relate to having your arm cut like that and I wouldn't walk by my parents if they cut themselves

I hated that kid. Sometimes.

How is that relateable

@@inkajoo Geez I knew he could be a bit annoying but wow

@@sajidteg4682 Same if my mom or dad cut themselves like that I'd help them and since I have been a Lifeguard and have First Aid training I'd be using it

Marisa Iversen Ha very funny

I got the same feeling, it was absolutely gut-wrenching!😩💔

yo haha! comedian level

If you have gotten a divorce, then sure. But if you haven’t, then no, you really dont know. Especially no if you don’t have a child

If you have gotten a divorce, then sure. But if you haven’t, then no, you really dont know. Especially no if you don’t have a child

EXACTLY, that was my takeaway from this movie. Nicole states that she was tired of "feeding Charlie's aliveness", considering that she sacrificed her blossoming film career to stay with Charlie and act in his plays. And while Charlie claims that he wishes that Nicole were dead in their huge, pivotal fight towards the end, he immediately breaks down in tears of remorse, apologizing profusely. 😩

I totally agree. :)

@@trinaq what hurts the most when I watched that scene is that the only true people you love can use your vulnerability to hurt you

If they had spend half the energy and 1/4 of the money of the divorce in therapy (couples and individual) they wouldn't got divorced.

@@pamelagonzalez8947 you still see the divorce as a terrible thing, but that's the opposite of what the director was trying to portray in the film.

....yeah sucks...want to scream..😤

ikr that was the most realistic quote ive ever heard in my life! loved it!!

My parents havent talked in nearly 5 years. They live different states. They are happy.

One of the main reasons I don’t want children

My 72 years old cousin married, divorced, remarried the same good for nothing guy 3 times. She told me, we still talk. My friend said huh, they are gonna get married again. But she married someone else, her first boyfriend from high school! Anybody cares to write a weird movie?

Me too, this movie has a lot of intimate scenes where you almost feel like you're intruding on what SHOULD be a private moment between two people.

Trina Q precisely! It hits quite close to home for me, making it feel all the more intrusive.. as my husband and I divorced amicably, because we knew we weren’t good for each other and everyone around us is always putting in their two cents 😅 sometimes love isn’t enough and that’s what the film is all about.

@@mj5697 I'm really sorry to hear about that.😩 I've never been either married or divorced myself, but one of my friends recently finalized her own divorce from her husband, and I witnessed the pain on both sides. Although they had no children, the divorce was amicable, if bittersweet, since they both concluded that it would be better to call it a day, as opposed to letting things carry on into toxicity.

Trina Q ah. I feel their anguish.. my ex and I live two streets away from one another and share custody of our six year old. She thinks we’re best friends hah

@@mj5697 Aww, that's sweet that you're on still on friendly terms, and that your little girl can spend time with both of her parents.💖👧

Was it worth the financial and emotional hardship? Could she have found a lawyer that wasn't the most vicious effective divorce lawyer in LA? If both of them had had lawyers like Bert it could've been so much better.

I agree with your viewpoint, although I wouldn't call Charlie "selfish" per se. He simply assumed that Nicole was content with what he liked, if he wanted to live in New York, so did she. It isn't until they begin the divorce proceedings that it's pointed out to him by the divorce lawyers and by Nicole herself that she doesn't necessarily see New York as her home, or where she wants to raise Henry. Excellent call of the costume symbolism! While I caught onto Charlie's two costumes as signs that he was slowly being erased from Henry's life, Nicole's was more subtle to me. It foreshadows her moving on from a passive role as Charlie's lead actress, and to try her hand at directing her own project, out from under his shadow, similar to Bowie's evolving style.🌟

Tim Evans they came to a settlement, but only after thousands of dollars had been wasted for no good reason. That's not what was best for their son. That being said, I understand why it went down that way.

But we could also argue they both failed to communicate, until the point of breakdown. Isn't it also revealed that she wanted to escape her old life with him at first? Also, she chooses to take her son, in order to put her career and needs above the marriage - which is exactly what he was doing. Effectively she's demanding that he give up his career and life [as he wants it to be] in order to see his son regularly, for her own needs - which is the very thing she's angry at him for. I think we see most of Nicole's hardship as being in the marriage, and most of Charlie's through the divorce. Also, it's Nicole who rejects the idea of counselling at the start. But they are both presented as equally good parents, equally capable, and equally talented. They don't take any cheap shots in this movie.

It's very human to resort to blame but in divorce between "normal" people, it is a simple fact that both spouses have outgrown each other. People do enter into situations where instead of being able to thrive as individuals, they end up crowding out each others formerly unrecognised need to grow and develop. The main message is that such growth is often unconscious and reflects the self-knowledge and maturity of both people. That's why until both spouses wake up to their own needs and meet them, they cannot fully be together. Some marriages will survive that process, but many don't. The emotional, economic, social and cultural costs of divorce are huge, and it takes time for goodwill and sanity to emerge from the breakup.

Is "it was harder on me than you so I'm the real victim" a good way to look at this story? It's like saying ppl who had it easier dont deserve to be acknowledged. There's always someone who has it harder. So that mentality is bullshit.

​@@mikahong lol did i ever call Nicole "the real victim"? Or say that Charlie is horrible and to be blamed for everything? I'm not demonizing anyone. I'm just expressing my sympathy for Nicole whose real predicament we actually don't get to see in this movie, only Charlie's predicament.

@@FunnyLittleFrog idk if the film itself failed to show Nicole's story or you just missed it, either way my point is valid. But with what you said, I wonder if people would be asking for let alone gaf abt Charlie's predicament if this film was just another men are trash and this fantastic main girl character got cheated on kind of story.

​@@mikahong Your point is that the someone-always-has-it-harder mentality is bs. I disagree. While none of this was easy for either of them, Nicole had it harder than Charlie in the marriage while Charlie had it harder in the divorce. In the movie when they are arguing, Charlie exclaims, "I feel like I'm losing!" to which Nicole retorts "I already lost!" Anyway, i'm not sure how to respond to your second paragraph except that despite everything, I did like 'Marriage Story'. Both were sympathetic, well-written characters. Nicole was not just a "fantastic main girl" and Charlie was not reduced to the "men are trash" trope. I will acknowledge that Nicole did have faults. She was not good at communicating her feelings to him, was disorganized, and not always sure what she wanted or didn't want. So I did like that about this film. In fact, I love Noah Baumbach movies and am waiting for his next one.

@@FunnyLittleFrog I'm not saying this film was like that, I'm saying that "he/she had it harder than him/her so they are the real victim is bs. It is. Ye, tbh I wasnt expecting and real response to it.

This process without lawyers is really about respecting and forgiving the mistakes of one another and she clearly wasnt ready for it. Its like if Nicole felt personally attacked and was defending her feelings and proud, while Charlie had less heavy thoughts cuz basically he was the one kinda toxic for her, idk... the miscommunication was stated even before the cheating for sure

Sophia Bourbon That is precisely why she needed to let it all out. She was hiding and suppressing her thoughts too much while Charlie was getting indulged. Some men are like children. if you don’t tell them, they simply don’t understand what you’re going through in your mind. Any marriages need efforts to keep the balance, and talking through, even if it’s too raw, was what they needed in my opinion.

@Claudine Art “some men are like children...” yet you go on to describe Nicole as incapable of communicating clearly, as all adults, especially parents, are supposed to do. Nicole’s character needs to take responsibility for stifling her own voice, and for never learning how to communicate like an adult.

@teverettb Yes I think they both need to learn how to communicate for different reasons. Charlie does express what ‘he wants’ to Nicole and she gives it to him while as Nicole doesn’t ask him what she wants in return. I said some men are like children because exactly that is sort of a relationship between mothers and children, only these two aren’t, which is unhealthy. Nicole may not communicate with Charlie, because she is hoping he would know and understand her needs too, that’s what women often do in a long-term relationship. But instead, Charlie gets frustrated with his wife and goes out to find someone else who would give him what HE wants; indulgence. Women tend to hope that their men would know what they need or want without talking through because, well, they’ve been together surely long enough to know that. But the truth is, some men don’t know (or don’t want to know) and need to be reminded. If that fails, it becomes an off balanced relationship. Hence I think they both need to learn how to communicate.

Rose Hepworth I think it would be better to say some *people* are like children because, as someone who has watched his parents divorce, and seen an uncle of mine divorce, I see some of the same qualities in my ex-step grandmother that I do in Charlie. My dad went through the first fifty years of his life with undiagnosed autism, so he has never had the proper treatment for the fact that he simply can’t understand when people don’t react to his actions the way he thinks they should. As for my uncle’s ex-wife, she was just crazy. And I’m close with my uncle and I guess his wife thought that she wasn’t getting enough attention from him. It got so bad that she thought she was having to compete with their daughter. She even thought he was sleeping with their daughter, which I know is not true. Since their divorce, my cousin hasn’t had much contact with her mother. But one thing that can be said about this movie is that it’s a bit of a trap for viewers. It’s one of those movies that invites and often provokes discussion. But I can tell you from my personal experience, sometimes my family do have to school my father like an overgrown child. But where Charlie was a poor husband, but a good and responsible father, my father was both a poor husband and father. And my mother was the neat freak while my father was the slob. I don’t know I guess I’ve just seen too many of the same qualities in men and women to be able to completely agree with your statement. But other than that everything you’ve said is completely on point.

This had been my thoughts during the movie.

I was actually proud of Charlie for fighting for his child. Henry will get over his "mommy phase" and seek out his dad more eventually . Parents should fight for their kid regardless. Like you said, they love each other. Unconditional love.

Alll boys need their fathers at a certain point. When I was his age, I preferred my mother/grandmother but when I got older my dads wisdom and advice helped even more

Right?!

Nah they're better off not being together, she left him and her career/life took off, he was holding her back, shouldn't do that to your spouse, you should bring out their best, not their worst

@@PeterEhik the relationship didn't work because Charlie didn't see Nicole as an individual, like she said an extension of himself. Believe or not this divorce did bring out the best in them. Nicole found her voice and Charlie learned the value of being loved. Charlie could've easily went back to the side chick, but no, he took an extended job in the city he hates and allows Nicole to make decisions (wearing whatever costume and not voicing any unwarranted opinions).

@@dmarmartin He doesn't wanna be married though, he said that during their fight, never even wanted to get married in the first place, happens to a lot of us, kinda feel pressured into commitment, not all his fault, I'm sure she pressured him but he didn't want a real partner, he didn't see her for who she really was as a person, just who she is to him, like how a kid sees a parent and child/parent relationships aren't supposed to last forever, eventually you see your dad and mom as just people, flawed with hopes and dreams of their own independent of you.

@@PeterEhik he didn't* I'm looking at the people after the fight, after the divorce. I see the two people at the end as different from the people at the beginning and the ones at the courthouse

Dmar Martin They’re different people because they’re not together anymore. Breaking up let them grow and if they came back together, they’d probably regress back to the way they were.

my name's myriah Nah. The fact that it was Noah Baumbach and Netflix would’ve gotten some buzz and the fact that it’s good would’ve carried it from there

@@Chantal-612 that's not what history showed

There’s been plenty of films with no big name actors that get a lot of buzz. I think this is one of those movies

@@lukas4112 but there are a lot of divorce films and if Scarlett Johansen hadn't been in this, no one would've cares about it

my name's myriah not true. Movies don’t rely on star power for hype

Trina Q check him out in Logan Lucky

In the Screen Actors Guild Awards, during Joaquin's Best Actor acceptance speech for Joker, he says that Adam "should be up here" while complimenting the other nominees. While Joaquin deserves it for Joker, any other year Adam would have gotten it probably

If you haven't already, watch him in Girls on HBO. He has been great for a while.

I would much prefer for Adam to win, but unfortunately that won't happen. Joaquin was good, though.

Trina Q Check him out in his indie films as well as The Torture Report on Prime.

Ironically both OP and you are like the movie characters. Both unable to understand each other’s point of view and dealing in only absolute truths in a world that is ever so messy and complex. It’s sad that both of you misunderstood so profoundly. Like the characters maybe u should put some childishness aside. بدر و بس

This. This is exactly what happened in the movie.

It's not gender specific. I'm an avoidant female that took a sensitive and loving man for granted, and lost him.

Yup. Exactly what happened!

J B it’s beyond that. if you rewatch the movie and take out her experience it’s not that he’s sad that he lose her. he’s sad that he wouldn’t see his son. this movie isn’t about their feelings for each other rather there concerns for their child’s future. charlie doesn’t fight for her but for his son. even with the argument you hear him say what does this have to do with california when she tries to spin it about their feelings for each other. bert even says the divorce was bond to happen just needed something important enough to fight about as well as the actors and actresses even said she was using this just to go to LA. this is about two people trying to fight for different things, the father his ability to be a parent to his son in the future and the mother the freedom and ability to prove she’s able and willing.

Maeve H I read your comment just after having watched Normal People.Perfect case in point to your observation that sometimes love isn’t enough .

@Akshay 004 Yeah, I sided with Charlie by the end. And there are so many reasons to side with him.

He didnt love as much as nikole

I personally thought Adam was better at the emotional acting. But consistency, having all of those emotions bottled up, becoming their character - that's Joaquin. And Scarlett, honestly. But no one's talking about her, and it's annoying me.

YZ I can see that opinion for sure. I just think the academy tends to reward the big loud ‘look at me look at me’ performances over the more subdued and measured ones. Year after year I see deeply personal quiet but powerful performances fall to the wayside in favor to whoever yelled the loudest and it never fails to frustrate me. And I agree, I think the lack of buzz around Scarlet is disappointing but I think she has a better chance to win in her perspective category more than Adam does his.

@@aberrantcow She better, someone needs to win for marriage story and I want Joaquin to win for best actor, so... Also, part of me is still shook this is scarlett's first year getting nominated... like wtf academy how

YZ oh wow! You’re right! It is her first year being nominated. And for best supporting actress too. Laura Dern will most likely bring that one home. I was hoping some of the actors from Parasite would have gotten some acting nods but since they didn’t I think Scarlet has this one in the bag.

@@aberrantcow hopefully she does, and I think Laura will win too. I hope they win, especially Scarlett, because then people won't look at me weirdly when I say she's a talented actress

Actually there were some liberties. They separated around the time that his wife recently had their baby. But in the movie, their child is a bit older. Also, Noah claims never to have had an affair with his secretary unlike Charlie in the movie. Anyways, have a good day :)

This. It is absolutely tied to him.

And I wonder how Jennifer felt that this movie was loosely based on them but in a semi autobiographical way

Totally that's pretty much abuse.

Ok

Max? I think you mean Henry

Thank you for your perspective! I hope you do become a screenwriter.

Best of luck bro.

Great comment!

Me too

Ditto, I started bawling during the infamous apartment fight with him and Scarlett. And when he completely breaks down... 😭

@@trinaq Damn near lost it myself during that scene and his meltdown - and I am a guy...

Being a child of divorce & messy family dynamics is one of the reasons I love Baumbach's work. Most of his work hits, on some level, close to home for me.

As someone who studies law, many lawyers are actually cool with each other. These are their jobs, what they're paid to do. While lawyers have personal opinions on the matter, it usually never affects working relationships as they're trained to differentiate between the court and the real world.

@@mac9733 I'm sure you're right, but in this story, to me it highlights that they weren't concerned with the humanity behind their clients, beyond what it meant in court

@@Stiffman1 I definitely interpreted it that way too! I was just adding some background. It's almost concerning how the lives of people can be belittled to just a job but hey, that's how that system is and I think this movie perfectly captured that

Yeah the ordering lunch bit was funny in a dark humour. Taking the piss as blatantly as possible.

Yeah the fact they’re friendly in the hallway outside the court room and then once they’re in they just go to war, you’d think that means the friendliness is fake but it’s the other way round, the slug match in the court room is all theatre and sport for them. Also towards the end Nicole’s lawyer says they managed to get 55/45 custody split despite the fact they both wanted 50/50 just so Charlie can’t go tell his friends he got 50/50, it’s just lots of little wins for the lawyers

I saw myself as the son but only being honorable to my parents during the divorce. It just made me not forgive myself

On the other Hand he made himself the ghost. Sure he "hated" La, but does that really hinder you when you want a relationship with your child? I have seen a few divorces and the key metric in my opinion was how close the father stayed to the childs original lifes. There are fathers, like my uncle who decide it would be best to bring a border between himself and his ex and child (hint: both Times this was a shitty idea) and there are dads that move a few Blocks, so the child does not have to drive hours every few days to see their dad.

@@loewenmakrele At the end of the film, Charlie has given up his aspirations of being a director to work at a local university. He has moved into a home in LA, where he has no friends and no support structure. He also wipes out his savings fighting for custody. Honestly what else could he have done for his child? He lost everything else in his life just to stay close to him.

@@tristanneal9552 Which its kind of interesting. Seems like Nicole spend much of her life with him (by her choose ofc) doing things she didnt want to, and in the end, hes starting to do the same (by his choose too). Basically what im saying its the last like "... lost everything else in their life just to stay close to him" its for both. Dont u think?

Or he was expressing his own view, children are allowed to do that you know.

I hope if you decide to have a child, it's when this thought process changes. That kid was Literally one of the most non complaining child I've seen in movies or in divorce situations. He didn't even know any cuss words. The P in parenting stands for Patience.

Agreed. I get that in many peoples eyes, he was pretty realistically portrayed, but I still wanted to slap him. Absolutely no idea why either parent wanted to be stuck with him 😂

Kids sense subtle cues. I'm certain his behaviors are a reflection of how his parents act around him. Kids with divorced parents have trouble adapting to the ever changing environment. It's not the kids' fault for the divorces.

Then you don’t have kids.

You just used up all your luck for the year! 🥺 I'm kidding, that's awesome

Same!!

Neat, that's a fantastic sign, I've just watched most of the 2019/2020 Best Picture Nominees, and I'm ready for The Take's Analysis Videos for Oscar Season!😊

It's the same thing that happened to me just now! Haha what a coincidence

Me too lol

Same here with me and my ex of 3 years, it's been difficult but it was the right decision

Thats what I thought too. He showed about what... 3% of love for Charlie but a full max 100% for Nicole's new guy.

Probably because the mother and the new guy indulged the kid’s every last whim. Seriously, she never stopped bribing him.

@Akshay 004 yeah cos marriage is a bad deal for a woman

Mgtow

Especially for women

The son was aggravating as sin. The one thing that really hurts is the ending when Charlie goes over to Nicole's house and he sees her boyfriend playing with their son, the mother in law was getting a but uncomfortable with Charlie, Charlie goes with them trick r treating as a ghost being distant away while Henry bonds with Nicole and Carter. That really broke my heart because that part reminds me of my parents and a depiction of how i took it. It just makes me feel guilty of how I was with my dad and my mom and her bfs

@@josephhernandez1885 I think it enhances the ending for that very reason. It's very realistic, this is how these things actually happen.

i have no desire to watch this movie for the same reason lol

Im sorry man

I am so sorry 😰

Emma W Harris don’t worry it’s been 4 years since then. After the whole incident many other unfortunately tragic events happened, like legit I could write a audio-biography about it. However ,since everything it’s become somewhat of a wake up call. I’m in my second year of college and I’m trying make friends along the way as I’m tired of being miserable for so long.

@@ianmeadows6941 good luck in your life Ian!! And always remember that you're someone's special person

Yeah. They see divorce as profit.

@@rickardkaufman3988 Pretty much yes, saw a video a couple of years ago about a guy who used to be a lawyer exclusively targetting women with rich husbands. He had tactics on how to trick the women into getting them to threat the fathers with false stories using custody as a bargaining chip so that men end up paying for the rest of their lives even after the kids are grown. And if there was no kid he still managed to get his clients up to 600.000 per year so he would earn 250.000 dollars without having to do any work. It all might have started out as a way to protect women but now it's something disgusting.

IT IS illegal for a family lawyer to receive a contingency payment in a divorce case. It is against the American Bar Association (ABA) for a family (or criminal) lawyer to get a percentage of the settlement. Family and criminal lawyers only get a flat fee (i.e. $500 per hour). That’s why the cocky lawyer that Adam Driver ends up with says “my rate is $850 an hour” NOT “I get 20% of your settlement”

Actually what is wrong is that lawyers can be priced as high as possible without any maximum limit. Making either opposing or defending side very vulnerable if they lose. So most people would try hire someone as expensive as possible and see both sides empty their pockets for the lawyers who just had to put up an act in front of judges for money. End of the day lawyers are cool with each other and the clients are not.

@@kirag9509 My sweet summer child, just wait until you get a divorce depending on who doesn't have any money to pay the lawyer, the lawyer will create a back end payment plan.

They were both nominated, we still don't know if they are gonna win or not. Adam will probably lose for Joaquin but I still have hope for Scarlett

You're from the future?

The Oscar hasn’t happened yet...

Gé Rosalem, I thought Adam was better than Scarlett. Both actors performed extraordinary, though.

It only implies who was Charlie along the marriage, a lot of people didn't pay attention to this signals and feel sorry for him 😅 and i am agreed with the idea that the movie doesn't give the time to Nicole to explain her whole story.

Yeah, plus he cheated with someone from THEIR WORK, it is very obviously why she wanted to quit. I suspect her initial suggestion was that they both step away from the company and start afresh closer to her home and family, especially now she has a child. She isn't so well suited to the theatre, and she wanted a fresh start. Neither of those requests are in themselves unreasonable, and because he had cheated the onus would really be on him to step away; at one stage he had promised to move there eventually anyway. But by doing that she makes him choose between his career - the company is really his baby - and her, and he didn't choose her. Is that maybe why she refuses to negotiate any further with the mediator etc? He underestimates her I think, focusing too narrowly on his work and sidelining her as someone who only works on his projects, who has no creative voice of her own, when in reality you see she makes good points when she's on set. The story is from his POV so they are belittled a bit, but she does have talents that he won't let her use, basically because he's too competitive and maybe subconsciously sees it as a threat.

kahkah1986 I’ve honestly always believed you should never work with your husband. It’s honestly too much saturation in one other person. We need time apart to reaclimate and not get on each other’s nerves. And the competition aspect is less an issue when you’re not showing up one another at the same skill set. So separate fields of work are also better. Pity people spend so much time working that that’s where they meet people. The shared interests that draw you together at the start can push you apart later.

THANK YOU!

@@just1desi yup, you could maybe argue that as it was his company she was wrong to just ask him if she could direct it because it put him in a weird conflict of interest situation. He sees her as an actress, and he has a very specific view of what an actress should be. You need that tunnel vision as a director, but in life it's a bad idea to not take others on board. It is normal for people to get passed over for promotion at work, for example, if someone decides they wouldn't fit, but marriage does complicate things because there are obviously more emotional issues.

They'll likely cover ALL of the Best Picture Nominees close to Awards Season.☺❤

YES PLEASE

There are many questions like that throughout the movie, but you have to remember "if that character did this or that would things have changed" you have to apply it to all the other questions. If they had gone to LA would he and her have changed their minds, if he hadnt slept with another woman would they change their minds, if he had let her direct a movie or if she had only married him after he had lived his 20s more would they have changed their minds. You cant focus on only one, but the accrued many

I honestly refuse to watch the Halloween scene at the end

They don't belong together. There's no need to diagnose Charlie with a massive victim complex to see that. Charlie, when he gets his way, like what happened in the marriage when they don't move to LA, can't be the victim. He doesn't have a victim complex during the marriage. We see when he doesn't get his way, when he can't get custody in NY, he loses. It's not wrong to see Charlie having a massive victim complex. Nicole knows this about Charlie. She says so to Nora, her divorce lawyer. She gets smaller and he gets bigger. She's not seen. After all this, Nicole wants to divorce fairly. Fairness takes sympathy. Seeing Charlie as unsympathetic yet going for fairness just makes Nicole's sympathetic approach just make sense.

@@utnis you're in luck, victim complex is not a diagnosis and has no diagnostic criteria so in fact I did not attempt to diagnose anyone :)

Same. I went through an ugly divorce with a genuine abusive narcissist and I still never said those kind of things out loud. And when I would say then out loud in prayer, I realized I didn’t really mean them.

That line has something else behind it. Daniel Sloss made a very good comedy special around this idea "sometimes you love someone dearly but they make your life complicated, especially if you want to do things they dont want to do, and often if you break up its as if one of you suddenly became the villain, so, wouldnt it just be technically easier if one of you died? No ones 'the villain' that way". There are many things that can be said about that, but I dont think hes necessarily wrong, because breaking up with someone IS far more complex to end a relationship than a tragical sudden death. Only and purely only talking technically a death makes it simple. If a partners dead and you were planning to break up then hey you no longer get to break their heart, they are dead. Thats kinda the dark point and the reason why Adam says hes sorry. To carry those dark thoughts is one thing but to outloud say them completely shows to the other person your deepest darkest mental state, so he falls to the groundand cries saying sorry. Pretty please take this all with a huge grain of salt, there are layers to this whole mess

Well he doesn't view his lover that way, it's how he views the woman trying to take his child from him. She had long since stopped occupying the role of "lover", and the new context she operates under changes how he sees her. She had just told him she finds him physically repulsive and a bad father, and compared him to his alcoholic and abusive father. I doubt she meant all of that, it was said in the heat of the moment, and I doubt she felt that as strongly when they were still lovers. I think the same goes for Driver's character as well. I don't think he meant all of that, as evidenced by his breakdown and her comforting him, and even if he does believe some of it he likely didn't believe it as strongly back when they were married.

I’m neither.

I thought at first it could be a beautiful love story lol

Did you also hate Adam's second lawyer? The mob type guy? Or only Laura's character? Cuz both were similar... Charismatic, street smart but vicious

ぼじん No, I actually hated both of them. I only mentioned Dern’s character because her performance stuck out to everyone and she had way more screen time than her counterpart. That’s also the reason why I mentioned her well deserved Oscar win for that role. Both characters were awful people.

@@ぼじん-o5r I hated she more becouse she always make it personal. At the end she doesnt give a 50-50 custody for his child becouse she doesent want Charli too tell his friends he win a 50-50

If i was to watch this again, i would refuse to watch the 2nd Halloween scene

Finally someone said it. Scar Jo is cheesy and annoying as hell as with everything she does and Adam Driver is overrated and pitiful.

As a person who's parents recently split I can tell you that is *exactly* what happens in real life. At first they tried to communicate reasonably but the lawyers had them at each other's throats in a matter of months, and neither party can have a proper conversation anymore

@@nunyabusiness42069 I was talking more abt the cast dont get me wrong the story was something I took srsly.

@@mikahong of course, I was more replying to OPs comment than to yours since they did talk about the plot

Thank you for sharing. I resonated a lot with this.

Agreed. It's very painful to hate someone you love.

For me they represented Nora as the women Nicole wants to be, but Jay was like a polar opposite of Charlie

I think the word you're looking for is 'respective' rather than 'perspective', but yes I agree.

I think each lawyer cleverly acted in a very calculated manner to get the job and to try to win - Nicole wouldn’t have hired Nora if she were aggressive like Jay… Nora was subtle but manipulative - she knew exactly what to say and when to say it. Jay was the choice for someone desperate who felt they were losing… just having fired the ethical guy.

I did too, but the film takes care to balance BOTH sides of the conflict. Charlie and Nicole are both shown to have valid arguments, and neither of them are presented as completely in the right.

Cheating a deal breaker. If my hasband cheated I will devorce him.

@@trinaq yeah but we "see" charlie's suffering in the movie, meanwhile scarlet's suffering its tell to us, something like "yeah I suffer every single year since we been married". And then "we", the audience, feel bad for the guy because we've seen him suffer while we dont see scarlett suffer, and we dont really need to see her crying or struggling every single time to get us on her side, she already suffer enough off-screen.

But I think in the end it was best for Charlie now he can be on his own as he wanted to be and work on his career

@Carter Atwell No, it shows how men sometimes neglect their families and let their wives take care of the kids, only ever compromise their egoistic wishes when they are forced to and want to have custody after divorce then just because they want it. It's obvious Henry wants to stay in LA but Charlie wants him to move back to New York "to win", although his connection with him is clearly not as strong as Nicole's. Charlie's not the victim, he's the one who wrecked the marriage and only ever wakes up during the divorce after everything is already ruined. He thinks he's entitled to Henry just because he is used to getting what he wants but objectively, Nicole is just the better parent. The divorce system is the only level playing field, men just perceive it as skewed because they are used to being judged more favourably everywhere else. It's the male-dominated world around it that's skewed, not the divorce system.

me too!

It really does show just how much Disney squandered Driver's talent. And he was one of the very few redeeming qualities of that trainwreck of a "Star Wars" trilogy.

Agree. Verging on narcissism I would say.

Can he, though? ...

@@Optimystik Yes he can. Check out his plays in high school. It's floating around here in RU-vid. He graduated from Julliard; a major performing arts conservatory and you need to be able to sing m to audition for the school. He also took a role in a musical called "Annette" which is supposed to be released next year.

@@kguerr197 Not to my taste, but it's subjective.

Hes a musician

The man who can carry a trainwreck of a "Star Wars" trilogy and a problematic HBO show for six seasons can carry a tune. Would've thought?

He went too far with that, but I understand his feelings. From his perspective, she’s taking away his kid. And she's doing it in more ways than one; I mean, geez, she never stops giving Henry presents; she's clearly trying to make the kid like her and California more. Plus, his play failed because he had to spend so much time in LA, he’s going broke because he has to pay so much for lawyers when they agreed they wouldn’t use lawyers, and on and on. I can understand his fury and pain.

How do you not understand that he was just saying it because he was mad? He literally starts crying and apologizing.

How...?

I disagree. Both are flawed. Nobody is perfect.

I agree. I see some evidence of Charlie being selfish, but I see quite a bit of Nicole not clearly speaking up about what she wants, too. Not just with Charlie, but with her lawyer, too. They were both very flawed though.

Rishi Kaufman i am talking about how she is portrayed, not my personal opinion of her. I think the film vilifies nicole slightly more

@@oneslikeme Nicole is just too Nice to stand up for herself and speak her mind, none of them are bad people.

He deserves it, but I bet he doesn't win. I think Phoenix has it in the bag.

I love both of them so I’m gonna be happy for either one of them

Either for them have a high shot of winning, but who knows which way it could go!😆 Last year, everyone was so sure that Glenn Close would take home the coveted award, that it came as a complete surprise when Olivia Colman won instead. That being said, she DID deserve it just as much as Glenn!💖🏆

In the wise words of Howard Ratner, "I disagree. I disagree."

Yeah, me !

Sounds like you're only saying that because you don't have children. Yes you might be stuck in a co-parenting relationship with someone you can no longer be together with and that can be very trying and difficult. But ultimately, having a child, raising them, loving them, watching them grow, it's one of the most joyous things a person can experience in life. And there's certainly nothing in life that compares.

This is disgustingly selfish

And it did