Marriage Story and the Absurdity of Modern Life

Noah Baumbach’s film sheds searing light on the viciousness and silliness of modern love and of the myths we tell ourselves about it.

As I was watching Marriage Story, it kept occurring to me how easily the film glides between its different registers: family melodrama, screwball comedy, slice-of-life. There were moments that were clearly intended to be uproariously funny (and not in that uncomfortable way that some comedies have adopted of late), and there were some that were so full of pathos that I was sure I was going to break down sobbing at any moment. There were moments that were both funny and sad, and some that were patently ridiculous but disturbing precisely because such ridiculousness is so key to present moment.

In the time since I’ve watched it, I’ve given a lot of thought not only to why the film succeeds in this register-shifting but also what such shifting suggests about the way that we, as a culture, think about the old ideas of romantic love that once structured our lives. Through both its grainy and brightly-lit cinematography and some truly top-notch performances from both its primary and supporting cast, Marriage Story subtly deconstructs the myths about romantic love that we have told ourselves, in the process exposing them for the hollow constructions that they are, unable to provide meaning in this profoundly cynical age.