Marriage Story (2019) review

Theatre director Charlie (Adam Driver) and his wife Nicole (Scarlett Johansson), an actress, live in New York City with their young son, but she's deeply unhappy with their marriage and so she jets back to Los Angeles with their kid and files for divorce, and then all the awfulness that follows those proceedings takes place (bickering lawyers, shouting matches, a wall gets punched).  Baumbach based this on his own divorce (from actress Jennifer Jason Leigh) and the meticulous attention to detail could have only come from someone with personal experience (or done a ton of research), except the way it's told limits the impact of it: without seeing much of the marriage in its "happy state" what's left to show is just the bitter end, and not the way it broke apart.  It's one thing for Nicole to complain about not being in LA and bringing up an affair Charlie had with an assistant, it's another to know why they stopped sleeping together for a long period of time (this doesn't excuse his adultery) or what made her become alienated from him.  The performances by Driver and Johansson are very strong (with Driver singin' some Sondheim) - and the supporting cast is noteworthy (it turns out Ray Liotta is also menacing on the 'right side' of the law) - but perhaps the union of two divas involved in the arts was lucky to last as long as it did....