a review of 婚姻故事

I had the disadvantage of having read a lot of praise about Marriage Story before I saw it. So I started viewing the film with a mix of scepticism and high expectations. Initially, my scepticism was predominant, as I found the intellectual theater society surrounding the lead actors slightly annoying due to affected overacting. But this was soon compensated by the very impressive and moving performances of both Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver. I'm a fan of Driver's expressive charisma since I first saw him in Paterson (2016) by Jim Jarmusch. Particularly the scenes where Driver gets emotional when reading Johansson's letter didn't leave my eyes dry. I'd call Marriage Story a masterclass in natural acting. Last but not least, Laura Dern, Ray Liotta and good old Alan 'MASH' Alda provided strong backing roles as the calculating lawyers.