Robert Benton
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Marriage Story (2019)
Directed by Noah Baumbach
influenced by Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Plot Visuals Themes
His Marriage Story, a masterpiece loosely based on his own divorce six years ago from actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, is the best divorce movie since A Separation, if not Kramer vs. Kramer (which it echoes).
Think Kramer vs. Kramer meets Husbands and Wives with smartphones.
That, in many ways, highlights a critical difference between Marriage Story and the superior 1980 Oscar winner, Kramer vs. Kramer.
Over a (too long) 2 hours and 17 minutes, Baumbach provides episodes from this process, ranging from meetings with divorce lawyers, to attempts at sharing time with the child, Henry (Azhy Robertson, with a 1970s-style moptop haircut much like Justin Henry's in Kramer vs. Kramer).
Forty years after Robert Benton essayed the struggles of divorce with the solemnity of a war crime in Kramer vs. Kramer, Baumbach crafts a more complex, intimate, and funnier film that makes the pain of truly irreconcilable differences all the bitterer.
Falling between the canonical Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Joachim Lafosse’s underseen After Love (2016), with humorous bits by way of Allan King’s A Married Couple (1969), Marriage Story scrutinizes both perspectives involved in the legal and emotional distress caused by separation and the shared custody of a child.
The film, based on the comic novel by Michael Chabon, is somewhat reminiscent of Nobody’s Fool (which starred Paul Newman), in that it shares a similar mood, snowy locale (New England) and cast of likeable characters.
Paul Newman did it, in The Hudsucker Proxy and Nobody’s Fool after all.
By now it’s hard to fathom that Feast of Love director Robert Benton is the Robert Benton of Bonnie and Clyde and Kramer vs. Kramer fame.
Why Benton, who has written such memorable films as "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Kramer vs Kramer" left the script to the sappy Burnett ("Autumn in New York") is anybody's guess.
The Bonnie and Clyde co-writer was once a Hollywood mini-revolutionary.
Though he started his career as a writer of zeitgeist-capturing projects like Bonnie and Clyde, Superman and Kramer vs. Kramer, to many his breakthrough as a director came in 1994, when he ushered Paul Newman to a Best Oscar nomination for the understated charmer Nobody's Fool.
Echoes of gritty ‘70s revisionist westerns – think Peter Fonda’s The Hired Hand , or Robert Benton’s Bad Company , or Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller — reverberate throughout News of the World , writer-director Paul Greengrass’ richly detailed, strongly acted and exceptionally well-crafted post-Civil War western, an uncommonly compelling drama that arrives just in time to qualify as one of the best movies released during a year when we need all the good news we can get.
As Art Carney said in the 1977 neo-noir "The Late Show": "This town doesn't change — they just push the names around."
This is, after all, a variation on Tootsie meets Kramer vs. Kramer, both of which featured Hoffman.
In the hands of a lesser performer, Mitzi could be seen as rather selfish and uncaring, but Williams evokes Meryl Streep’s sublime turn in Kramer vs. Kramer and the result is nothing short of heartbreaking and empathetic.
Director Fisher Stevens—an actor turned award-winning documentary filmmaker—takes the movie into some predictable places, first as a “buddy picture” showing the gradual bonding process of Palmer and Sam, then layering on emotionally wrenching overtones that might remind movie lovers of break-up dramas like Kramer vs. Kramer or Marriage Story .
Nothing, however, beats the joy of watching Paul Newman, no longer catatonic (though I would have loved to see Linda Fiorentino again; what the hell happened to her?), sink his teeth into his most substantial role since, I dunno, Nobody’s Fool?
One could argue that a cast with this much wattage hasn't been assembled since Twilight (Paul Newman, Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon, Reese Witherspoon).
Cinematographer Nestor Almendros, a Cuban expatriate, had previously worked with Truffaut on "The Story of Adele H." and won an Oscar the year before for Malick's "Days of Heaven," does a good job making Manhattan come alive as part of the narrative and using tight shots to highlight the anxiety of his subjects.
Picture Kramer vs. Kramer stripped of its turbulent emotions and cutting performances and you'll have a good idea of what it's like to suffer through this bland, tear-soaked train wreck.
Aspects of Kramer vs. Kramer and Good Will Hunting abound within Gifted , as do outright clichés, such as Frank having to carry a self-imposed burden of guilt for his sister’s suicide.
From the very opening scene, you know you’re watching a Scorsese movie whether it’s the first-person narration and occasional fourth-wall breaking to the opening needle drop of “Still of the Night.”
It slightly revises “Billy Bathgate” story, witnessing the fall of a great man.
The Squid and the Whale (2005)
Directed by Noah Baumbach
influenced by Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Plot
Written and directed by Noah Baumbach , The Squid and the Whale --a personal story about a family going through a divorce--is the Kramer vs. Kramer of this generation.
I think what really made me mad is that I thought the movie was over as Sam gave his Big Speech....BIG GODDAMN SPOILER ALERT! but it turns out to be the big speech from Kramer vs. Kramer.
Writer-director Robert Benton is as adept at pushing our buttons, in his own "tasteful" way, as Spielberg in "Jaws" (MAX Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.).
Cinematographer Nestor Almendros, a Cuban expatriate, had previously worked with Truffaut on "The Story of Adele H." and won an Oscar the year before for Malick's "Days of Heaven," does a good job making Manhattan come alive as part of the narrative and using tight shots to highlight the anxiety of his subjects.