Best Actor 2019: Adam Driver in Marriage Story

Adam Driver received his second Oscar nomination for portraying Charlie Barber in Marriage Story.

Marriage Story follows the dissolution of a marriage that quickly falls into a custody battle over their son.

Adam Driver continues his streak of an ever growing resume of quality performances in interesting projects. This is as I'll give it away early that I think this is a great performance, but why it is a great performance, is a good question. One might think it is built around one scene, which there is a small nugget of truth in terms of making that scene work, but even that nugget is also not entirely true. Adam Driver here takes on the essential role of just playing a normal man. The idea even of the character of Charlie as a surrogate for writer/director Noah Baumbach isn't something that is focused upon, and I'm glad that Driver didn't try to turn Charlie into Baumbach. This as that would get in the way of what he is doing here, which is to first and foremost just introduce us to the person that is Charlie Barber. This isn't to say he is just some average ole' Joe, given he is a successful avant-garde theater director, but Driver's performance here isn't to make a distance with the character. This offering the right directness in his overall approach, not that he's making Charlie the most approachable man per se either. What he is instead is doing is allowing us just to observe this man, as a man in the most immediate intimacy, though by merely being with him with so many moments in which Driver let's us in on this man. Charlie, again is not some extreme idiosyncratic person, the challenge in Driver's work is to make it all compelling with letting us into basically Charlie's experience.

His essential partner in this approach is Scarlet Johansson as Charlie's wife Nicole. The brief early scenes of their interactions being essential in creating the chemistry between the two. This is not of this sparking love but rather a long standing relationship. What is remarkable in their performances is they do not simplify this towards the other end as their conversations and interactions capture the informality of their marriage experience as a day to day existence. This both in the brief moments where we do see them seemingly in happier moments with their son Henry. Driver and Johansson, right down to the most simple physical interaction they capture the ease and casual manner of a married couple. This with an assumption and connection, that in itself actually plays an essential element within the film. This in the earliest scene as the two prepare for their separation, where they initially speak of just a small scale agreed upon divorce, however after finishing their last collaboration on Charlie's new successful play. This is as in this moment their manner towards another is of a connection of love in the moment but rather an awareness of each other. This in each creating the static attempt of an indifference though with sort of a festering emotion "smoothed" over by their state of marriage. This in their exchange as Nicole asks for notes on the show, which when prodded slightly Charlie puts forth. Driver delivers the rundown on her performance without hesitation, cruelly, though naturally within portraying it as a ease based upon familiarity.

The film then shifts first to Nicole's perspective as she moves to LA to act in a pilot and is talked in lawyering up, serving Charlie surprisingly when he arrives to visit. Driver is outstanding in this scene by making it so vivid in realizing every moment of Charlie's interactions that lead up to having the legal documents given to him. This includes portraying so earnestly just Charlie trying to reconnect initially with his wife and son again, and even in his interactions with Nicole's sister and mother played by Merritt Wever and Julie Hagerty. I give special mention to the latter because the two performers overplay their roles to the point of being cartoons, so Driver deserves special mention in his cheerful moments of playing along with them, that he natural segues into as just someone having fun with what he believes to be his immediate family. Driver makes his part of it genuine even as he's working with one note performances, and in his own way creates a better awkwardness of the situation by showing the comfort of their interactions. This before he is finally served with the documents and Driver's subtle loss of life and sense of confusion is brilliantly performed. This as he creates so subtle in the moment the anxiety and sense of betrayal. It isn't with a curse but just this disbelief that feels so honest within his work. This honesty of his performance, consistent honesty, that becomes so essential in not only bringing the part to life but creating the needed empathy for Charlie.

This is that Driver makes Charlie neither monster nor saint. He rather makes him a flawed complicated man but by offering the necessary genuine detail to every situation makes his experience far more tangible. This as we see him initially attempting to find a lawyer while also getting blindsided by the legal ramifications of a situation he didn't know existed. Driver finds the right sense of detached confusion within these conversations that underlines not a man who doesn't care, but rather someone who has no idea what he is doing. This though with the distinct sense of the unease of the situation. Driver is fantastic in creating such a withdrawn frustration in these moments of trying to do what the law expects him to do in order to get custody of his son while also trying to do his job and see his son. Driver is fantastic in these scenes by carrying with it the constant push pull of emotions of the situation. There isn't a moment Driver is not wholly within through his performance that so captures the clawing intensity of it. This in just delivering the general lines with this attempt at the utmost cordiality, even towards his wife when it appears as though she is doing things to undermine him, though with these minor frustrated outbursts towards his son when he shows little appreciation or concern for Charlie's efforts. Driver essentially though shows in these moments the conviction in the devotion of care for his son, though always burdened by everything else weighing him down in these attempts.

The nature of this slowly caves within Charlie and this is realized so powerfully yet quietly in Driver's work that so succinctly avoids melodrama. Also if one wants to chime in on the scene I will be getting to below to make a claim otherwise, I think you should rethink your position. Anyways, the fantastic work Driver does here is showing the weight of the situation. This as we get his moment where he finds his first lawyer (Alan Alda) who slowly advises him to settle to avoid a battle in the courts. Driver is amazing in the scene in just the way he physically embodies the pain of the situation in his pacing, and his brief moments of yelling out and nearly breaking down. Driver is excellent in showing so well the way Charlie is on the verge of completely losing it, yet doesn't quite, by creating these edges, with also this always palatable sense of the repression that works towards just how worn he is by it all. I love Driver and Johansson's work in the scene, which is tailored to belong to Laura Dern and Ray Liotta as their hot shot lawyers, where we see their first official legal hearing. Driver and Johansson are marvelous in their silence, in showing the sheer shame and bitterness in their down turned faces. Both creating the sense of shame within the situation but also within their out in the open secrets spoken so loudly by both lawyers to undercut each other. Their performances convey the weight of these secrets even in their reserve, particularly in the sense of how much it hurts each to hear every one of them.

Driver's performance naturally works towards a tipping point. This in that underlying sense that only grows, with minor outbursts, such a phone call between Charlie and Nicole were a bit of the venom comes out. This with an exasperation of something that runs deeper than a single betrayal. What Driver though builds towards, and wholly earns, is the scene where Nicole and Charlie truly talk to one another about the situation. This scene I think alone perhaps shows why insta-social media reaction of art, is a particularly um, let's say um... a stupid method too many utilize these days. This as this scene I will be discussing here was dismissed out of context as "bad acting", but hey I guess if you have a poorly informed opinion about something, best be aggressive and quick about it...or maybe not. Anyway, actually taking the time to watch something though is important to appreciating it I suppose. This as this scene exists and is earned through what we see built up throughout the story between Charlie and Nicole, as their conversations slowly begin to become more hostile. Of course this is even brilliantly realized in the scene itself that does begin quiet as the two are just talking, and Driver delivers just an extra bit of a snipe as he remarks not wanting to use a photograph because it has Nicole in it. This with though in Driver's silent reactions as he creates the sense of the wear of just hearing her words as she begins to openly bring up what was said in court. This then begins what is a masterful decay portrayed by both actors, that moves both Charlie and Nicole towards their lowest point. This as each speak of old wounds, and Driver is incredible by making every outburst harder and more emotional as any sense of repression just loses itself through Nicole's words that cut particularly deep. Driver though is even not one note in also portraying the attempts at fighting back by rationalizing his own mistakes or attacking Nicole. In each, Driver finds the mess of the thoughts as they spiral out as urgent pleas or hateful barbs. Driver peels away each real defense as he physically wears the pent up anger until it finally releases as such both through that and vile words at Nicole. Driver makes this as natural as anything else he does, and in turn extremely remarkable, as this is not just some sudden yelling, but rather the breakdown of any sense of love driven really by words that could've only been learned through such familiarity. The two earn this extreme honest to two people at their absolute worst, both through their articulate and truthful work within the scene itself and throughout the film.

After that scene Driver carefully shows even the after effects of it by showing a more detached Charlie in a way. Driver continues to bring us right with Charlie in every scene, even two potentially contrived moments. The first being when Charlie cuts himself in an absent minded way when speaking to a court observer. Again Driver's detachment in the moment captures just someone spent in the way he speaks defeated by it all, and his down turned manner of someone who just is not quite with it in the moment. The same is true in some time later after the court has finally been settled, mostly not in Charlie's favor, and he goes out in the night. The contrivance comes as Charlie, sparked by music in a bar, decides to regale everyone with a song. Driver though again adds truth to it as his first lines in the scenes still carry just that weight and bitterness of the situation until his ears catch the music. There then Driver is amazing in the moment by showing just a hint of mania in his eyes as he begins to sing, suggesting a man just trying to find some way to live up his life just a bit after having been burdened by the custody battle for so long. I'll end this review with two different moments, particularly in focus of the film, but both together I think help to illustrate the greatness of Driver's performance here. The first being one of the final moments in the film where Charlie stumbles upon his son reading a letter from Nicole about all the things she likes about Charlie. Driver is heartbreaking in this scene by quietly building just how moved Charlie is as he hears each word then begins to read the words himself. This in the moment showing Driver so poignantly revealing just how much Charlie did love Nicole even after all that happened, in his pained voice, the sorrow of his expression, though with a sense of tenderness within it all. The other moment though comes before this just as Charlie enters Nicole's house after all has been said and done, and is there to see Henry. This as first Charlie meets Nicole's boyfriend, and brief, so brief, facial downturn, Driver shows the heartbreak in this, before shifting to a welcoming smile to greet Nicole's family and Henry once again. That longer moment and this shorter one though show just how detailed Driver's work is here, in making every moment of Charlie's experience so vivid, while always seeming absolutely natural. This isn't the portrayal of some historical figure, some extreme personality, it is just a man, a man that we get to know, feel and understand his experience through Adam Driver's astonishing work.