TRACKING THE THEMES #2: Marriage Story

Film: Marriage Story (2019) directed by Noah Baumbach

Featured Song: Being Alive, initially by Dean Jones, used in the musical Company by George Furth, written by Stephen Sondheim

The Film: 

Marriage Story is the semi-autobiographical story behind director Noah Baumbach's divorce with Jennifer Jason Leigh. The film shows happy times at first before descending more and more into the nasty world of divorces. We follow both Charlie Barber (Adam Driver), a theater director, and Nicole Barber (Scarlett Johansson), Charlie's wife and the star of his shows. Nicole gets the opportunity to star in a TV pilot in Los Angeles and she takes the opportunity to return home from New York City. The film shows the couple in the proceedings in the courtroom and life outside the courtroom, both of which are vicious in their own ways. 

The Scene: 

The song 'Being Alive' is sung by Charlie in a bar that we see twice in the film: once in celebration after a successful play where Nicole is there as well, and for the second time here. Driver performs the song and the scene can be viewed here.

The Usage: 

The song itself is important in understanding the usage. 'Being Alive' is featured in the 1970 musical Company and was written by Stephen Sondheim. The song was originally written as a way that framed marriage as a prison but rewritten to end the musical on a more positive note. That sentiment remains in the first half of lyrics ("Someone to hold you too close, Someone to hurt you too deep") but fades in the second half when these same lines, or similar lines, turn into pleas ("Somebody, need me too much, Somebody, know me too well"). In the scope of the musical, this piece is uplifting. The lead character, Robert, is a bachelor and through this song, he is expressing that his ways are changing. In Marriage Story, though, these lyrics convey the exact opposite meaning. Charlie recognizes he had all of these things. Driver, through his acting, conveys a sense of emotion and awareness in exactly what this song is saying and by the emotional climax of the song you feel exactly the regret that is present in the character.

The scene is even more heartbreaking when juxtaposed with the scene immediately before it.

This scene features Nicole (Johansson) singing 'You Could Drive a Person Crazy' which is also from Company. This song, in the context of the musical, features three of Robert's ex-girlfriends scorning him. This fits perfectly with Charlie singing Robert's emotional highpoint song from the musical. What is more important than that, though, is the juxtaposition of the framing within the scenes. Looking at the scene featuring Johansson first. The camera focuses in on her first, then we see her performing with her sister and mother before we get more cuts to see her performing at a party with plenty of friends and, perhaps most essentially, her son.

Now, look at our bar scene featuring Driver. We see Driver is surrounded by colleagues at first. He gets up, he sings, he feigns returning back to his seat, but he goes back up to continue performing with the camera framed directly on him. As he continues singing, we start to get panning action in on Driver that really becomes noticeable during the second half of the song. It pans into a full close-up by the end of the song. This is to emphasize just how alone Charlie is in his breakup.

Nicole has a great support system that we see throughout the entire film. We meet her mother, her sister, we even learn about her divorce lawyer (Laura Dern, Academy Award winner for this performance) which is a vast contrast from when Charlie shows up with a gruff lawyer that we know nothing about (played by Ray Liotta). His own infidelity and this divorce have left him fully alone and he mourns this through the song. The work is done by the camera and also the set design within the party scene. Nicole is in a bright living room wearing a shirt with flowers, Charlie is in a dimly-lit bar with a black sport coat and a button-down shirt. This shows that our two lead characters are in vastly different places in their lives.

In conclusion, the use of 'Being Alive' is absolutely essential for Charlie's character development. Throughout much of the film, Charlie is selfish and unaware of exactly what he has. With this song, however, we can clearly see that he gains self-awareness of his actions and this sets the tone for the remaining ten minutes of the film.