Noah Baumbach, our nation’s foremost documenter of sibling infighting and Mr. Greta Gerwig, has a new movie coming out this fall. Marriage Story, formerly just called the “Untitled Noah Baumbach Project,†stars Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver as a married couple who stare off into space while lying in a state of domestic ennui, with supporting performances from Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, and Merritt Wever. The synopsis, per Tuesday’s lineup announcement from the Toronto International Film Festival: “A stage director (Driver) and his actor wife (Johansson) struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal and creative extremes.†Netflix, the film’s distributor, calls it an “incisive and compassionate portrait of a marriage breaking up and a family staying together.†See it at TIFF, and maybe schedule a call with Dr. Amanda Reisman as you walk out.
Update, 7/24: IndieWire has an exclusive first look at Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. Now we can take another look at you, Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver’s crumbling marriage! Baumbach, whose parents divorced and who went through a divorce himself, said he could draw from his own experience, but he also consulted with outside sources. “Divorce is like death in a way,†he told IndieWire. “When it happens to you, people can speak about it, but no one really wants to speak about it who’s not in it. I just felt like there was a way to make a movie that was both very much about this subject, and also totally transcend it.†Marriage Story will play at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and will be on Netflix and in theaters this fall.