What Charlie loves about Nicole
Charlie's opening letter: a montage of the small, specific things he admires in Nicole, from jar-opening to giving up a film career for his theater.
Film · 2019
Marriage Story
A stage director and an actress struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal extremes.
1h 00m
of essential Marriage Story
26 moments
Playlists
Play these back to back with the extension
Charlie Barber's Best Moments
Marriage Story
A New York theatre director whose marriage is ending and who cannot see how far it will go. Played by Adam Driver.
21 moments · 48 minby Favseen
Nicole Barber's Best Moments
Marriage Story
An actress leaving her husband and New York to start over in Los Angeles with their son. Played by Scarlett Johansson.
18 moments · 42 minby Favseen
Charlie Barber & Nicole Barber
Marriage Story
Every scene of the marriage coming apart, from the opening letters to the last one. 13 scenes together, in story order.
13 moments · 30 minby Favseen
Nora Fanshaw's Best Moments
Marriage Story
Nicole's divorce lawyer, warm in the room and merciless in court. Played by Laura Dern.
8 moments · 21 minby Favseen
Nicole Barber & Nora Fanshaw
Marriage Story
The actress and the divorce lawyer who tells her she deserves better. 7 scenes together, in story order.
7 moments · 19 minby Favseen
Charlie Barber & Henry Barber
Marriage Story
A father learning to be one on alternate weekends. 6 scenes together, in story order.
6 moments · 17 minby Favseen
Henry Barber's Best Moments
Marriage Story
Charlie and Nicole's young son, the one thing both are fighting for. Played by Azhy Robertson.
6 moments · 17 minby Favseen
Bert Spitz's Best Moments
Marriage Story
The gentle, old-school lawyer Charlie hires first. Played by Alan Alda.
3 moments · 7 minby Favseen
Jay Marotta's Best Moments
Marriage Story
The expensive, combative lawyer Charlie turns to when the fight gets serious. Played by Ray Liotta.
3 moments · 7 minby Favseen
Characters
All moments
26 in story order · 1h 00m
- 01
- 02
What Nicole loves about Charlie
Nicole's answering letter: how Charlie eats, dresses, cries at movies, loses at Monopoly and builds a family out of whoever is around.
- 03
Nicole walks out of mediation
The mediator wants each of them to read their list aloud; Nicole refuses, Charlie wants to, and she ends the session with one blunt line.
- 04
Nora's pitch: an act of hope
Nora introduces herself to a tearful Nicole, shares her own story and reframes the divorce as choosing something better for herself.
- 05
Nicole tells Nora how she met Charlie
Engaged in LA and feeling half dead, Nicole saw a strange play in a New York apartment and the actor playing to her turned out to be the director.
- 06
Nicole's monologue: I got smaller
Nicole explains how she shrank inside the marriage, why the pilot felt like her own piece of earth, and the phone-number test that ended it.
- 07
Cassie serves Charlie with a pie and a bad accent
A sweating Cassie stalls with pecan pie and asks Charlie to do his northern English accent before handing him the divorce papers.
- 08
The pie was just a pie
Stunned, Charlie asks Nicole why she used lawyers and why Cassie had a pie; she tells him she wants an entirely different kind of life.
- 09
Jay Marotta: 950 an hour and take the kid now
A brash lawyer lays out his fees, calls Henry by the wrong name and tells Charlie to fly his son to New York before he never sees him outside LA.
- 10
Nora's call lands mid-rehearsal
Nora warns Charlie of a default judgment and full custody while an actor keeps interrupting about his untucked shirt and a hug that isn't in the play.
- 11
Get in the car: the booster seat and the ninja
Charlie cuts his hand on an uninstalled car seat, snaps at Henry to get in, then learns the handmade Frankenstein has lost to a store-bought ninja.
- 12
Bert Spitz: a death without a body
The gentle, thrice-divorced Bert explains his philosophy, his rates, and the absurd fact that Charlie will also be paying for Nicole's lawyer.
- 13
Watch me conflate: the phone fight
Charlie calls about Henry's claim they're staying in LA; Nicole reveals she hacked his email and knows about Mary Ann, then stamps her foot in rage.
- 14
Lunch order, smelling the toast, and a deal versus a discussion
Charlie can't pick a sandwich so Nicole orders for him; Nora gushes about his play, then traps him on why a promise counts only when he wants it.
- 15
Sidebar with Bert: fuck the space
Bert admits no judge will move Henry from California and urges Charlie to settle; Charlie explodes that his son needs to know he fought for him.
- 16
Nicole cuts Charlie's hair
Charlie comes over to fix a stuck gate during a blackout; Nicole notices he's getting shaggy and, like old times, cuts his hair while Henry sleeps.
- 17
Court: Jay and Nora fight over the genius grant
Jay recasts the marriage as Charlie's gift to Nicole; Nora counters that his genius was built during the marriage and half the MacArthur is hers.
- 18
Court gets ugly: affairs, hacking and the car seat
The lawyers trade the affair, the email hacking, Nicole's drinking and the unbuckled car seat before the judge keeps the status quo and orders an evaluator.
- 19
The fight, part one: you don't remember promising
Alone in Charlie's apartment they try to talk; it collapses into the Geffen residency, what was promised, and whether Nicole was ever happy in Brooklyn.
- 20
The fight, part two: your father, my mother
The lawyers' smears turn personal: who put whom through hell, what Henry really wants, and each accusing the other of becoming their own parent.
- 21
The fight, part three: I hope you're dead
The argument turns savage: the affair, who hated whom, who gave up what, until Charlie punches the wall, says the unforgivable and collapses in apology.
- 22
Nora on mothers, fathers and the Virgin Mary
Prepping Nicole for the evaluator, Nora explains why imperfect dads are forgiven and mothers are held to the impossible standard of Mary.
- 23
The evaluator visit and the knife trick
With the court evaluator watching dinner, Henry begs for the knife trick, reading practice goes badly, and Charlie's demonstration draws real blood.
- 24
Nicole, Sandra and Cassie sing You Could Drive a Person Crazy
A Sondheim trio from Company, performed as a giddy family number after the custody battle is mostly over.
- 25
Charlie sings Being Alive
After a self-pitying story about losing the couch, Charlie takes the piano bar microphone and sings the Sondheim number straight through.
- 26
Henry reads Nicole's letter and Charlie finishes it
Henry sounds out the list Nicole wrote for mediation; Charlie takes over reading and reaches the lines she never let him hear.