Film - Marriage Story

I was right to not see this at the cinema. It has a solid start and a good ending, however, everything in the middle is just so sad. There are no windows of light.

As with so many American based films, it highlights an inadequacy in that country, in this case, the ludicrous divorce laws. I understand that films often exaggerate but we do know that there are state laws which can mean an advantage for one party. I spent most of this film shouting ‘you don’t need a lawyer, what do you need a lawyer for?  you barely disagree on anything! 

Don’t get me started on the child assessor. Ok, do get me started. What exactly do you learn from coming to someone’s house to observe a child? No pretence of ‘this is a friend coming to dinner’. It was more like sitting like at the back of a conference room and observing rather than taking part. The scene turned the film into a farce.

I had no sympathy for the wife (Scarlett Johansson) who hired a hot-shot lawyer despite them agreeing not to have one. How does she afford it? I had no sympathy for the philandering husband (Adam Driver) either. I was even 50/50 on the kid.

It was fun watching Ray Liotta turn up as the ruthless lawyer followed by Alan Alda as the softer although inadequate version. That was it, really. 

5/10