This is a love story about divorce.
The film is based on the personal experiences of director Noah Baumbach and his ex-wife. It is said that when the film premiered inside the Netflix headquarters, the creative team invited their exes to watch the movie together, and the entire audience at the end of the film presented a spectacular scene-almost everyone in the audience cried with their ex.
Although this is a divorce scene, you will not see any chickens and dogs jumping around, scrambling for the ground, and chasing horses to death. There is only one quarrel scene in the whole film. In this scene, the widow sister and the driver brother both performed extremely well. I believe that anyone who has been in love can feel the same. The film presents a simple camera language, with the delicate interpretation of the widow sister and the driver brother, blending warmth, laughter, and sadness, making the audience cry and laugh. The following film review contains key plot spoilers, and it is recommended to watch the film before reading.
[The devil is in the details]
From the two letters at the beginning of why they love each other, it can be seen that both Nicole and Charlie love each other because of the details, and because of the details, they feel that the other party is "a different person from others". Charlie loves Nicole, a candid woman who can open the bottle cap with one hand, open the manual gear, and dance freely in the crowd; Charlie's lovely Charlie is patient with her son, insists on her ideals, cares about employees, and can be handsome at any time regardless of the details. Just the right kind of warm man. Speaking of which, Nicole has not forgotten to attack the entire straight men group: we all know how difficult it is for straight men to dress up.
Modern people often wear pink filters when entering marriage. We solemnly promise to accommodate each other, understand each other, and support each other. No one will put on the table the argument that "men are superior to women", which is sour and sour. But in real life, women's accommodation and compromise are still the norm. Nicole, a well-known actress, will repeatedly reject invitations from Hollywood on the West Coast because her husband likes New York on the East Coast. Nicole tried again and again to discuss with Charlie the idea of going back to Hollywood, but Charlie kept going in and out as always, so Nicole had to spend almost all of her savings and hired the best divorce lawyer to inform Charlie. , In their relationship, her accommodating and compromising ends here. On the other hand, Charlie, sitting alone in the hotel room, began to reflect on why he fell into such a field; when he was about to lose custody of his son, he realized how lethal a wife who no longer accommodated him was.
[About feminism]
The sharp divorce lawyer Nora has a wonderful monologue in this film:
The concept of the perfect father was only invented 30 years ago. Until then, the father was supposed to be silent, absent, unreliable, and selfish. Although everyone in the world wants a different father, we still accept the traditional father image subconsciously. No matter how absurd a father makes a mistake, we all love him; but we never accept the same mistake from our mother, intellectually and emotionally. The society's moral standard for women is the Virgin Mary, how perfect she is. She was still a virgin when she gave birth, and she guarded the child anytime and anywhere, even when she was holding the child's body, she was gentle. What about the child's father? He was never there, he didn't even sow seeds, the child's father is God, he lives in heaven and never appears.
So women must be perfect. Men's scum, the whole society thinks this can be forgiven. And women will always be measured by a different, higher standard. Sounds awful, right? But this is the norm.
This monologue uses Christian countries as the soil. Let us turn to look at East Asian countries influenced by Confucianism, and the oppression of women is even worse. "Marriage Story" has been nominated for the Golden Lion Award, Golden Globe Award, and is expected to compete in the Olympics; and "82 Years of Kim Ji-young" is being boycotted by all Korean men and asked to be banned. Yes, when divorced in East Asian countries, men will not be stripped of their skin like Americans, but the repeatedly record low birth rates in China, Japan and South Korea also show that it is an urgent moment to improve the understanding and protection of women in the whole society.
With the progress of the times, the educational level of men and women is equal, and the social status of women is gradually improved, and their contribution to society at the level of "maintenance" is equal to that of men. But in daily life, there are still many restrictions and discrimination against women in the interaction between people, especially women who are facing marriage and childbirth.
Many men defend their position with "I help you with housework and I help you take care of your children", but it is precisely from the word "helping you" that they believe that housework and childcare are women's responsibilities ; From the fact that diaper tables in public places such as shopping malls and airports are often located in women's toilets, we can see the same way of thinking in the whole society.
Parenting is not a woman's duty, it is a social duty, so in families, most mothers feel resentful that they have to "bring children alone". ① Many women who have just realized that many things in society are unreasonable, unfair and discriminatory, because they have been accustomed to this kind of education since birth, they do not realize that there is any problem.
As the female lawyer in "Marriage Story" said: "The normalcy of society sucks." But what is even more embarrassing is that in this social status quo that is discriminatory against women, we see no hope of change.
[What does divorce really mean? ]
There is a popular saying on the Internet recently, when you meet someone you can talk to very well, it may not be that you have met your soul mate, but that the person whose EQ is higher than yours is backward compatible with you.
Nicole and Charlie are divorced, they don't have any reason to be "backward compatible", but they both decided to sing at their "Freedom Celebration Party", and the song even came from the same musical - "company"
They are divorced, this cannot be a mutual accommodation, of course, you can also interpret it as a coincidence, but I think it is more likely that they are both at this moment and think of this musical about a bachelor in New York that they watched together. It seems that the divorce has not changed the fact that Nicole and Charlie are soulmates.
At the end of the film, through a clever arrangement, Charlie recites the letter that Nicole didn't even read at the beginning of the film. At the end of the letter, Nicole wrote, "I fell in love with Charlie from the second I saw him, and even though I can't find a reason to love him now, I still love him."
After reading the letter, Charlie burst into tears, and Nicole, who was silently standing behind him, burst into tears. I know this kind of plot is a bit old-fashioned, but in front of the screen, I also burst into tears. People who went to the cinema to watch the premiere online said that when the theater lights were on, the men and women in the seats were wiping their tears.
The two-hour viewing time felt like a "swoosh" over. During these 136 minutes, I laughed many times, my eyes were wet several times, and after the end, I cried for half an hour. Director Bao, you are considered excellent; Sister Widow, Brother Driver, you are considered excellent. By the way, this movie was recommended by my mother-in-law to watch it together after I quarreled with my husband. After watching it, our relationship quickly warmed up. My good mother-in-law, you are also very good.
Accommodate each other, understand each other, support each other. It is easy to say and difficult to do, but in this world, is there any good thing that is easy? As Charlie sings in the final song of the film: She needs me so much and knows me so well that she keeps me awake at night, but it also gives me meaning.
Why do you have to go to court to understand these truths? They spent almost all their savings, hired two divorce lawyers, and blamed each other for nothing in front of judges, jurors, child observers and other outsiders. How to manage a marriage well, does it really need to be so laborious?
There are too many beautiful lines in the movie, such as the letters Nicole and Charlie wrote to each other, and the songs they sang to themselves. I couldn’t help but translate them into Chinese and share them with you. Click the link below to read.
The lines that touched me in "Marriage Story"
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