by Chris Feil

Noah Baumbach opens Marriage Story with the beginning thrums of Randy Newman’s fairy tale score set against a duet between its divorcing couple. As they list their affections, it’s almost like they could break into song. And eventually they will, but not until they are ready. Scarlett Johansson’s Nicole and Adam Driver’s Charlie won’t sing until they have been given the back-breaking gift of clarity, the kind of new beginning you can’t really get until the old you is burnt to the ground. Marriage Story presents their new outlook by making fresh use of two songs from one famous musical with its own musings on love and marriage, Stephen Sondheim’s Company.